^0-n.- 



^^0^ 



■^'\ 



1.V- o 












»>,: 



^> '°w 



' . . s ' A 



'-^c 



K^ 



Hq. 









\> 



"°. 



-1 






.^ 



^'^^^- 



^ "' .'. ^'' v'^ <>. 



•■/ 



^"-^^^^ 






.<> ^- 






\" 









c 



0^ 









^ A 



.^ 



\ 






<. °-^ .^^ 



^0^ f^^K: ^f ^^^^^^ ^'- 



o « o , '^o ^*^ 

o V 






^Ov-. 



4q. 



S^ * 



^°-V^, 



^ • ' ^ a" ^ ° « ° \^ <^ o^ . . . , % 



o '^.^1^' A 



^ A." ^ j^ 












C' 



.<{-' 



N^ 



^0 

,4 q 



-,<v 



<:<- 



^^J^^VM. 






0' -^^ '.rrc' ^^ 
0^ .\v:'* > v^ 








WANDERINGS NORTH AND SOUTH, 



HERMANN BOKUM, 



cha-PTjAin, u. is. a., 



TTJPiisrE^i's iL..A.:tTE i3:os:e>it.a.x.. 



P H I L A D E T. P n I A : 
KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, No. 607 SANSOM STREET. 

1 8 r> .1 . 



4-6 S- 



PREFACE. 



The " Testimony of a Refugee from East Tennes- 
see," being the first of the four articles contained in 
this little volume, was published more than two years 
ago, and shortly after my having left the, so-called, Con- 
federate States. Having revisited East Tennessee in the 
course of this year, the changes I met with and the 
change which in many respects had taken place in my 
ovra views, has given rise to the second article, " Sketches 
of East Tennessee Life." The third article, " Life 
AND Death of a Christian Soldier," which appeared 
some time ago in the Episcopal Recorder, exhibits a 
combination of christian faithfulness and self-sacrificing- 
loyalty. The reappearance of it will be welcomed, 1 
know, by many. The last article, " The Turner's 
Lane Hospital," bears marks of the haste with which 
it has been prepared. Our time is a time for deeds, 
rather than for the recording of deeds. From my inti- 
macy with some of the hospital chaplains, I know that 
this is the cause of their silence. The Turnefs Lane 
Hospital, is a small one, in comparison with some others ; 
it can accommodate only about three hundred patients ; 
still what I have said about it will prove I trust not 
altogether void of instruction as well as interest. 

HERMANN BOKUM. 

Fukner's Lane Hospital. 
PMladelpJiia, Dec. 22d, 1864. 

(iii) 



A REFUGEE'S TESTIMONY. 



(1) 



A REFUGEE'S TESTIMONY. 

It may seem bold and self-confident, indeed, that in tlio 
face of the multitude of pamphlets, addresses, essays and 
treatises, which this war has called forth, I should add one 
or more to the number. And yet there are some facts con- 
nected with my past history and my present position, which 
may sufficiently account for my appearing before the public 
just at this time. Born and educated in Germany, I arrived 
in this country iu my twenty-first year, and after having 
spent twenty-eight years in the North, under circumstances 
which were especially calculated to endear to me the historic; 
life, and the institutions of the country I had adopted, I 
lived in East Tennessee till treason there overthrew, for a 
time at least, the Government of the United States. My 
attachment to the Union compelled me to leave my home and 
my family to avoid a dungeon. It was then, when for more 
than a year I had had to witness the effects of a military 
des]3otism, which exalted falsehood, fraud and robbery to 
the rank of virtues, and rode rough-shod over every one 
that was unwilling to adopt this creed, that I prayed God 
that the time might come when I, in some humble way, 
might bear witness to the fearfulness of the crime, which, by 
means the most foul, had in that region of country at least, 
placed at the mercy of villains, the most abandoned, the 
noble and devoted men of the country. Similar prayers 
have risen from other lips, but their testimony will only be 
heard in the day of judgment, for they have sealed their 
laithfulness with their death. Yet it is not only recollec- 
tions like these which now impel me to write. When after 
having fled from my home I at last had reached the lines of 
our troops which were then stationed near Cumberland Gap, 
I saw myself surrounded by hundreds of meo. with whom 
for years I had >ningled at their altars and their firesides, 
and who like myself had been compelled to leave their 



homes and families. Impressed "vvitli the fact, that my past 
life would give me an influence in the North, which they 
could not have, they asked me to do all in my power to 
induce the men of the North to come to their relief, that 
the}^ might be enabled with their swords to make their way 
back to tlieir homes. I promised it, and now while I am 
about to fulfil this promise, I pray God that He may pre- 
pare for my words a ready access to the hearts of my 
readers. To all this I may add that I am once more stand- 
ing upon the ground on which first I stepped when I came 
to this country, that not a few of those with whom I becanw 
acquainted in early life are now, when far advanced in jear^^ 
my honored friends, and that they have expressed a convic- 
tion "that my extensive acquaintance in Pennsylvania, Avher</ 
for years I have labored as a preacher and a teacher, migh'. 
enable me to impart information concerning the first work- 
ings and the gradual progress of treason in the South. Eight 
or wrong I have acceded to their request, and I would have 
acceded sooner if my duties as chaplain of a hosj^ital had not 
been of such a character as to claim the whole of my time. 
East Tennessee, which late events have brought into such 
general notice, is a portion of that elevated region of country 
Avhich embraces Southern Kentucky, Northern Alabama, 
Northern G-eorgia and A¥estern North Carolina. The Cum- 
berland Mountains in East Tennessee reach occasionally the 
lieight of 2,000 feet, they are rich in minerals, from their 
t^ides leap innumerable springs, flowing through productive 
valleys and emptying finally into the Tennessee or Cuinber- 
land rivers, the climate is magnificent, the scenery grant! 
and picturesque, the population of an agricultural character, 
having comparatively few slaves. To this region of country 
I had moved in 1855, I had purchased a farm, ^^^''^^^sd 
vineyards and had gathered a small congregation. I had 
indulged the hope that in the same measure as I was endeav- 
oring to make this home beautiful and productive, my 
children would resist the temptation to change, and this 
farm would be an heirloom in m^ family for many years to 
come. Beyond my spiritual sphere and these agricultural 
labors my ambition did not extend and with but a trifling 



5 

change I could adopt witli regard to myself and my family 
the beautiful lines of Barry Cornwall : 

Touch us gently, Time ! Humble voyagers are we, 

Let us glide adown thy stream. Husband, wife and children three — 

Gently as we somethnes glide Two are lost — two angels fled 

Through a quiet dream. To the azure overhead. 

These humble hopes^ however, were not to be realized. 
It is now two years ago when I no longer could resist the 
conviction that we were standing on the very threshold of a 
treasonable attempt to break up the Union, At that time I 
happened to be in the house of one of my neighbors. In the 
course of the conversation the Union was mentioned by me. 
"The Union," said he, with a contemptuous smile, "the Union 
i.s gone ! '' I could hardly trust my ears. Here stood a man 
before me, Avho was not like myself an adopted citizen, but 
a native of this country, yet who was ready to obliterate 
from the family of nations the land which for more than 
thirty years I had learnt to regard as my own, and which 
had conferred on me innumerable blessings, "Hear me," 
said I to him, there was a time when the disciples of the 
Lord had called blessings upon Him ; — the Pharisees asked 
him to stop his disciples, but the Lord told them that if his 
disciples were to be silent, the very stones w^ould cry out. 
•''' You," added I, " Avere born in this countr}^, 3'ou have Wash- 
ington and his time handed down to you as a direct inherit- 
ance, I am but an adopted citizen, I am but as one of the 
stones, but as one of the stones I cry out against you." It 
w^as at that time that a great L^nion meeting was held in the 
vicinity of Knoxville. Horace Maynard was occupied in 
another part of the State, but Andrew Johnson and other 
leading Union men were there, and the question was seri 
ously debated whether East Tennessee should take up arms 
and destroy the bridges in order to prevent the sending of ■ 
rebel troops from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to 
Yirginia, Less extreme measures prevailed, the bridges 
were not burnt, the troops from the Southern States rushed 
into East Tennessee, and the L^nion men of East Tennessee 
were singly overpowered and disarmed. In the mxean- 
time Fort Sumter had fallen and some of the secessionists 



6 

came to me and asked me to join the Southern Confed- 
eracy. "You remind me," said I, "of a good old bishop, 
when he was led to the stake he was advised to abjure 
the Savior and save his life. " Eighty and five years, was 
the answer of the bishop, has my Savior graciously pro- 
tected me, and should I now forswear him?' So say I to 
you; thirty and five years has the flag of the Union with 
the help of God nobly protected me, and should I now 
forswear it?" The secessionists, however, became so violent 
in their measures that I found it necessary to go to Wash-' 
ington in order to consult the Hon. Andrew Johnson, who 
by that time had succeeded in taking his place in Congress, 
and to find out whether we soon would obtain help or 
whether I would be compelled to move with my family to 
the North. When I went to Washington, Tennessee was 
still in the Union, when I returned it had been taken out 
by force and by fraud, and I was compelled to find my 
way through the Cumberland Mountains as best I might. 
Governor Harris had in vain endeavored to get a convention 
sanctioned by the people, by the means of which he had 
hoped to carry the State out of the Union, He had then 
called an extra session of the Legislature, and that body in 
violation of the express will of the people had declared an 
ordinance of separation on the Gth of May, submitting the 
queetion of Separation from the Federal Government and of 
Representation in the Richmond Congress to be voted on by 
the people on the 8th day of June. Against Separation from 
the Federal Government and Representation in Richmond, 
East Tennessee gave a majority of 18,300. It would have 
been much larger if the votes of rebel troops had not been 
counted, though under the constitution they had no author- 
ity to vote at any election. In this way however the State 
was forced out of the Union when a majority of her people 
were utterly averse to any such separation. 

Having arrived at home after having past through many 
trying scenes, I found that my journey to the North had 
excited attention, and that threats had been made of hanging 
me as soon as I should return, I, however, had to visit 
Knoxville, AYhen I entered the court house in that city, I 



found Judge Humplireys occupied in judging men, who had 
committed no crime, but in various ways had expressed their 
partiality for the Union. This is the same Judge Hum- 
phreys against whom others as well as myself were cited to 
bear testimony in Washington a few months ago, and who 
in consequence of that testimony was deposed from his 
of&ce. When I had left the court house a friend took me 
aside, himself a secessionist, and told me that I would do 
well to leave the city, since in case the soldiers were to learn 
that I had just come from the North, I in a few minutes 
might be a dead man. Then came a time of darkness and 
oppression. The battle of Manassas had taken place, and for 
four months we were kept in the dark with regard to almost 
everything, which could have a favorable bearing on the 
pregervation or restoration of the Union. It was during this 
time that Judge Humphreys held court again in Knoxville, 
and that he himself told the State's Attorney that he had no 
right to send Union rnen to Tuscaloosa unless they were 
taken with arms in their hands. The State's Attorney, a 
wretched drunkard, replied that they had only been sent to 
Tuscaloosa in order to make of them good Southern men. 
Shortly before this time some of the Union men had secretly 
combined and had burned certain bridges, in order to put a 
stop to the thousands of soldiers who were every day passing 
on to Virginia. Mr. Pickens who is now a Major in the U. 
S. Army, had taken part in this enterprise and had escaped. 
In consequence of it, his father, a Senator in the State's Leg- 
islature, had been seized and taken to Tuscaloosa. One of 
my neighbors returned at that time from Tuscaloosa, where 
he had been imprisoned, sick in body and in mind. He told 
me that he had left the aged Pickens in good healtli, but 
that he could not live, since he was confined with twenty- 
seven others in a small room, and in the night they Avere not 
permitted to open the windows. Pickens died. His wife 
when she heard it, lost her reason and died ; a daughter 
being thus suddenly deprived of her parents also died of a 
broken heart! It was in this way that the State's Attorney 
in Knoxville made of Union men Good Southern Men ! An 
acquaintance of mine, the Eev. Mr. Duggan, a highly re- 



8 

spectable clergyman, was compelled ou a hot day to walk 
twenty miles as a prisoner to Knoxville, because long before 
the State had been carried out of the Union he had prayed 
for the President of the United States. His horse was led 
behind him, and he, though old and very corpulent, was not 
permitted to mount it. When he had arrived in Knoxville. 
he was declared free, and free he soon was, for God took 
him to himself. That journey on foot had become the cause 
of his death. A man named Ilaun had been taken to 
prison, because he had taken part in the burning of the 
l)ridges. The names of the persons who tried him have never 
been made j^ublic. Not until he had arrived at the place 
of execution did the public learn why he was to be executed. 
He was asked whether he was sorry for what he had done, 
he replied, that if placed in similar circumstances he would 
do it again, and that he was prepared to die. Others beside 
him were hung, still others were shot down or otherwise 
murdered. ISTor did this spirit of 'oppression extend to 
Union men alone. Shortly before I left East Tennessee, a 
wealthy secessionist named Jarnagan, who lived in my vicin- 
ity did not rest, till two companies were quartered in that 
town, in order to keep down the Union men. Three months 
afterwards he left his residence, because, as he himself de- 
clared, his OAvn friends had robbed him of property worth 
$3,000, and would take his life if he would not give up all. 
It was still worse with Daniel Yarnall, another secessionist, 
and also one of my neighbor?. Pie had complained concern- 
ing the conduct of some soldiers in the Confederate army, 
and these soldiers had been punished ; in consequence of it 
they went to his house and stripped him. He himself 
counted forty lashes, and then could count no more. When 
the workings of this treason first commenced, and I on ni}' 
missionary tours was passing through the fruitful vallej's 
and over the pleasant hill sides of East Tennessee, and 
beheld the fields ready for the harvests, and the industrious 
men and women engaged in their daily round of duties, I 
a,sked myself, whether indeed it was j^ossible, that the mad 
ambition of men would go so far as to desolate these scenes 
of beauty. It has proved possible indeed ! Where but two 



9 

years ago tliere were all tlie elements calculated to make a 
community prosperous, tliere is now misery and wretched- 
ness the most fearful, and the rule of an armed mob bent 
upon indiscriminate plunder. Do you see 3^onder wretch ? 
IIo lias been a drunkard and a vagabond all his life-time, yet 
he has thousands of dollars in his pocket now, and he rides 
the most beautiful horse in that whole region of country. I 
could take you to the industrious former from whom he 
took the horse, and whom he robbed of his money, and who 
now, together with his wife and children are left in penury ! 
Do you see yonder girl ? How beautiful she would be, if it 
were not for the loss of that eye ! That eye she lost in success- 
fully defending her honor against the assault of a Confederate 
soldier, until her father could come to her aid and slay him. 
Ah, my reader, you who live here so comfortable and so 
undisturbed, have little knowledge of what is going on but 
a few hundred miles from here, I have seen the man of 
eighty, the oldest and the wealthiest man of a loyal district, 
who at his age had joined the Home Guards, raise his trem- 
bling hands to heaven, and ask God whether there was no 
curse in store for deeds so cruel. I have heard the gentle 
woman exclaim that she must have the blood of one of 
these men, her spirit being maddened to desperation because 
the}'' had fired a hundred shots at her husband. Who could 
remain cold at the sight of enormities like these ? I have 
often been asked whether the representations made by 
Brownlow and others can be relied on. Neither Brownlow 
nor myself, nor any, nor all of us can give a full record of 
cruelties which have been perpetrated and are now being 
perpetrated in the recesses of the mountains and valleys of 
East Tennessee, or of the sufferings and the deaths througli 
which East Tennesseeans have to pass in the prisons of the 
South from want of food, from filth, from absence of venti- 
lation and from degrading work. 

After the defeat otf the rebels near Mill Sj^ring had taken 
place, I had to go secretly to Kentucky in order to attend to 
some private aft'airs of mine. After my return the battle of 
Pittsburg Landing had occurred, and Fort Henry, Fort Don- 
elson and Nashville had fallen into the hands of the Federal 



10 

troops. In consequence of these reverses the conscription 
law was enacted. There was a place of mustering near my 
house, where in former times generally some 800 men had 
mustered ; that day only about 50 appeared. Two nights 
after, almost all the men able to bear arms disappeared, went 
to Kentucky, and entered the United States Army. Then 
Churchwell, the Provost Marshal of East Tennessee, a man 
who has since been called to the Judgment bar of God, 
issued a proclamation and declared that if these men would 
come back they should be permitted peacefully to pursue 
their avocations; at the same time, however, he attempted 
to seize some of the most influential Union men who had yet 
staid behind. I was to be one of the victims ; by a most 
Providential combination of circumstances I received early 
notice of the fact that five men were sent out to apprehend 
me. I had made up my mind to go to prison. I could not 
bear the thought of leaving the atmosphere where my wife 
and my children were breathing, but my wife prevailed on 
me to go to our friends in the North. Her last words were : 
'•' Fear not for me, I trust in God ;" I begged her to kiss our 
children, and I turned into the mountains. Never I trust, 
shall I cease to be thankful for the gracious manner in which 
I was shielded from harm in that perilous journey. Six 
months later my wife and my children arrived in Cincinnati, 
having crossed the Cumberland Mountains in the rear of 
the two contending armies, and having made more than 300 
miles in an open buggy. We have since removed to this 
city, where I have been appointed Chaplain of the Turner's 
Lane Hospital. 

Now, after having made these statements, which in a great 
measure refer to myself, I wish to draw the attention of the 
reader to certain subjects which are of vital importance to 
all of us, and on which my past experience, such as I have 
just described it, may enable me to shed some light. In the 
first place, then, let me advise every cfee who reads these 
pages to turn away from the man, who attempts to persuade 
himself and others, that the South has been driven into her 
treasonable course in consequence of the Avrong inflicted on 
her by the North. This, indeed, is one of the falsehoods by 



11 

which the men of the South liave attempted to excuse their 
treason, but it was not the cause of it. Do you think, I 
believed them, when they came to me about that time and 
told me that the men of the North were a set of cowards 
who would not fight, and that one Southerner could whip 
five of them at any time ? Do you think I believed them 
when they spoke of drawing the line between the North and 
the South along the Ohio river, and of erecting an immense 
fortress opposite Cincinnati, and of battering down that city, 
whenever the North interfered with slavery ? Or do you 
think I believed them, when they advised me to join the 
South, because, if the South succeeded. East Tennessee would 
be a great manufacturing country, and my little property 
would increase a hundred-fold in value? Of course I did 
not believe them. I knew too much about my friends in 
the North to doubt their bravery, and I had seen too much 
of the want of manufacturing enterprize in the South to 
indulge the hope that my property would be worth any 
thing, if the South should gain the ascendency. Just as 
little did I believe it, when they came to me and told me 
that they were compelled to rise in rebellion, because the 
North was resolved to rob the South of their slaves. Had 
not I listened to the Eev. Dr. Eoss and many of the other 
leaders of the movement ? Washington and Jefi'erson and 
the men of their time had, indeed, regarded slavery as an 
evil which would gradually give way under the influence 
of Christianity ; but not so these apostles of our own time 
or of the immediate past. According to them, slavery is 
the very foundation, on which Christianity is resting, take it 
away and Christianity crumbles to pieces ; according to them 
on the existence of slavery depends the cause of freedom, 
touch that institution and freedom as well as Christianity 
are crushed. Strange doctrines these, you say, yet these 
are the doctrines which have been taught in the South by 
divine and layman for more than twenty-five years, and 
taught for the very purpose, which they now attempt to 
realize by their treasonable movement, and into which they 
have been drawn for reasons very different from those which 
they have made public. It was indeed not abolition nor 



12 

any otlicr imaginary wrong inflicted on them, by tlie Norths 
whicli influenced their action, but a conviction of a very 
different character. Witli all tlieir boasts concernins; the 
divine character of the institution of slavery, and the spirit- 
ual and temporal blessings which resulted from it, they could 
not conceal from themselves, that in its practical workings 
slavery in many respects looked very much like a curse. 
Why was it that these vast multitudes of emigrants were 
peopling the North, while they kept away from the South ? 
Why, that manufactures and commerce selected the North 
for their favored home ? How did it happen that if you 
started from Pittsburg on your way to St. Louis, you would 
see on the right hand side of the Ohio river, flourishing 
towns and cultivated fields without number, while on the 
left, nature reigned beautiful but unproductive? It was 
slavery which was the cause of it, and the time was fast 
.approaching when the South compared to the North would 
be in a lamentable minority, and would lose that influence 
over the General Government which it had so long enjoyed. 
Hence the criminal resolve of breaking the Union to pieces, 
and of founding an aristocratic empire with slavery for its 
basis, and the prospect of having untold wealth, pouring 
into its bosom by re-opening the African slave trade. Ah 
what anguish have we Union men of the South suffered 
when one and another of these diabolical plans was de- 
veloped to our view. How vain the hope of being benefitted 
by the resolutions of Crittenden, or by any other resolutions, 
when we had learnt that the Union was to be broken to 
pieces at every cost. Many an appeal reached the South at 
that time from the great conservative body of the people in 
the North, calling upon them to be but patient for a few 
days and they should receive every security for their rights 
which they possibly could desire. There were many hearts, 
which bounded with joy and with hope at these appeals, 
but they met no response in those Southern Senators, who 
had it in their power to pass the Crittenden resolutions, but 
who refused to vote, that they might break up the Union. 
Abolition no doubt has to answer for many things, but it 
never will have to answer for having; brought about this 



13 

rebellion. Tlie po^Yer was rapidly escaping from tlie hands 
wMcli had wielded it so long, and that power was to be pre- 
served, though the country should be deluged in blood, and 
the recollections of a glorious past be given to the winds. 
Yet there are still those amongst us, who are sympathizing 
with the South, on account of the wrongs it has suffered at 
the hands of the North. I assure you that the slaveholders 
of East Tennessee, who are Union men, do not feel that they 
need such s3-mpathy. They never have complained that 
they have lost any of their rights, and they look with utter 
abhorrence upon this attempt to obliterate from the fam.ily 
of nations, a country which surpassed every other in a spirit 
of justice and humanity. They are most decidedly of opinion 
that God would be altogether just, if He should sweep away 
the institution of slavery, which these men intend to make 
the foundation of their empire, and if they also in conse- 
quence of it have to suffer loss they are prepared for it. It 
is by the preservation of the Union alone, that they can 
have security not only for the property which may be left 
them, but for liberty and life. Shortly before I left East 
Tennessee, I was in the house of a wealthy slave ovmer, a 
devoted friend of the Union. He spoke with tears of this 
attempt to break up the Union, adding that there was a report 
that the Government of the United States intended to con- 
fiscate the slaves. He did not believe, he said, that the 
Government would deprive loyal slaveholders of their pro- 
perty, but in case it should be necessary, in order to preserve 
the Union, he Vv'ould gladl}'' give up the slaves. Another 
slaveholder, also one of my acquaintances, who had been 
robbed of a large portion of his property, and who had been 
in prison for months, at last reached his home again. " The 
last dollar," he said to his wife, "the last slave, if but the 
Union be preserved, and joj^fuUy we will start anew in life." 
"Think you," said another distinguished slaveholder, a refu- 
gee from East Tennessee,* the other day in the city of New 
York, in the same spirit, "that for the pleasure of enjoying 
the company of my wife and my babes whom I have not seen 
for the last two years, I would not have willingly given all 
* The Rev. Mr. Carter. 



14 

tliat my negroes are worth, or all that they ever will be 
worth to me ? " Yet though the Union men of the South 
thank them so little for their sympathy, the sympathizers 
here are still 'going on in the same strain. " Pray, sir," said 
one of them to me but a few days ago, liow would you like 
it, if you had owned two hundred negroes and they had 
been taken away from you? " "I would certainly feel satis- 
fied," was my reply, " if at that price I had obtained security 
for the property I might still have, but most of all for my 
liberty and my life. I have not lost two hunderd slaves, 
but I have lost all the property I owned, and which I valued 
ut six thousand dollars. Yet by giving it up and escaping 
to the North, I again enjoy the benefits resulting from the 
Union, and the means of supporting my family." 

By facts like these I am readily reminded of others, which 
it may be as well to mention in this connection. I have 
very frequently heard of late the assertion, that this is not a 
war for the Union but for the freeing of the negroes, and 
gentlemen have told me, that they, indeed, are as much for 
the Union as ever, but that they are constrained to oppose 
the administration, because it has now raised issues which 
are altogether foreign to the original objects of the war. 
ISTow in order to meet this objection in a satisfactory man- 
ner, I beg the reader to look at the beginning of this war. 
When the South was going on in taking one aggressive step 
after the other, and the United States Government still bore 
it patiently, a gentleman, who is now prominent in the ranks 
of secession, but who at that time had not made uj) his mind 
which way he would turn, expressed great astonishment at 
this conduct. " The United States," he said, " are a powerful 
nation, but even for a nation so powerful it seems strange 
to be so slow in punishing treason." Ignorant as I then was 
of the extent of this treason, I gloried in this forbearance of 
the United States because it was so much in keeping with 
the spirit it had ever manifested to leave room for the loyalty 
that might still exist in the South to make itself felt. At a 
later period, however, the necessity of an energetic move- 
ment had become evident, and government and people unan- 
imously declared that they were fighting, and would fight 



15 

on for the Union and tlie Constitution. I became well 
acquainted with this state of feeling, for I was then in the 
North. But then, again, there came another phase of the 
struggle. The Federal arms had been sufficiently successful 
in taking ]3ossession of large portions of slave territory, and 
they had to meet the question, what they should do with 
the negroes of disloyal slaveholders. The question was 
finally solved by the proclamation of the President, a docu- 
ment, which is the result of the circumstances in which the 
disloyalists of the South have placed themselves by their 
treasonable course. Thus it has happened that thousands, 
and let me add, I am of the number, while th^y have at all 
times opposed abolitionism, and have been in favor of secur- 
ing the South in all their rights, have now come to feel, that 
treason has no rights whatever, and that the negroes, if they 
furnisn to traitors the means of support, and of carrying on 
this war against the Union, should be deprived of these 
means wherever an opportunity offers, and that they ought 
to sustain the Government to the utmost in their power, 
because it is acting in accordance with these views. To 
illustrate this subject from what may be called the common 
sense view of it, I beg leave to relate an incident related 
to me by a clergyman, whose name I shall be happy to give, 
as soon as he will permit me to do so. He had been invited 
to deliver a patriotic address in a neighborhood, which was 
not celebrated on account of its patriotism, and hints had 
been dropped, that if he did go there he might expect to be 
handled somewhat roughly. The clergyman however did 
go. He proposed to stop at the house of an acquaintance 
who was quite an excitable character. Before entering the 
house, he heard that one of the agitators on the other side of 
the question liad been there in the morning. He of course 
then expected a scene of a good deal of excitement, and he 
was by no means disappointed. Hardly had he entered 
when his friend rushed up to him, and exclaimed : " Well, 
sir, it is all over now ! " " What is over." " There is going 
to be a draft." " Well, what of that ? " " We will not go ! " 
" But you will be made to go." " What, make fifty thou- 
sand men go ? " " Ah remember my friend, it is not every 



18 

one tTiinks in tliis ■vvay. It is only a little corner here of 
Pennsylvania." "But," exclaimed tlie otlier with great 
vehemence; "I will not fight for the nigger!" "Not fight 
for the nigger," said my friend. " Well, now, listen to me. 
Suppose I were a general of the Secessionists, and had fifty 
thousand trooj)s under my command, and I were standing 
here, and you were a general of the Union troops, and you 
had fifty thousand men under your command, and you were 
standing over there. And now suppose that you had leamt 
that here back of my right wing I had stored a vast deal of 
ammunition, and that you knew a way how to get round 
there and take it away from me, you also knowing that if 
you did take it, I would have no powder to fire at you, 
would you take it?" "Certainly!" "And then suppose 
that you had learnt that back of my left wing I had stored 
a considerable amount of provisions, and that you nad an 
opportunity of getting hold of it, you- knowing that if you 
succeeded in taking it, I would have to do with half rations 
and might be very much disposed to give up the fight; 
would you go and take it ? " " Surely I would ! " " And 
then again suppose, that far in the rear of me, there were 
five thousand negroes constantly at work in order to supply 
me with the provisions I needed, and that you knew a way 
how to catch them, and that you knew that if you did catch 
them, I was sure to give up, for I would have nothing what- 
ever to eat. "Would you go and catch them ? " " Surely 
I would." " Well, that is all the Government proposes to 
do." "Is that all?" "Yes." " Well I am for that ! " So 
it is, my reader, those who declare that the Government is 
no longer fighting for the Union and the Constitution are 
far from the truth. We have to accustom ourselves to the 
thought, that as matters now stand in the South, traitors 
have no right under the Constitution, and that the safety 
and the perpetuity of the Union^ demand that they should 
be deprived of every means by which they are aided in 
their treasonable cour-se. He who opposes the Government 
in this respect, is aiding and abetting treason, and to arrest 
such and punish them is the duty which the Government 
owes to the safety of its loyal citizens and to itself. 



17 

And this brings me to anotlier brancli of my subject. I 
have been often asked, what is likely to be tlie final result 
of all this loss of treasure and of blood. A similar ques- 
tion, I understand, one of my friends addressed the other 
day to a prominent individual in Washington, The person 
thus addressed was silent for a time, and then said with 
deep earnestness : " Our prophets are dead and I cannot 
tell." By the prophets he meant those great statesmen : 
Jefferson, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, 
Clay, AYebster and others, who in times gone by have been 
our political teachers, and who have pointed out to us the 
course we must take in order to enjoy peace and prosperityo 
But however interesting and touching this answer may 
appear, he could have given a better one. He could have 
said : " Our prophets are dead, and yet they speak." They 
speak by their example, and by the writings which they 
have bequeathed to us. Jefferson when he had been elected 
President said in his inaugural address : " "We have called 
those who are our brothers, and who hold the same principles 
with ourselves by different names," referring thus mildly to 
the spirit of party which had been manifested previous to 
the election. Monroe when he had been President for four 
years, had so acted in the spirit of the words of Jefferson, 
that when his re-election was to take place, there was none 
to oppose him ; the whole people formed a great American 
Union party. When Jackson, the democrat, had to contend 
against the doctrine of separation as promulgated by South 
Carolina, there stood by his side, Daniel Webster, the whig, 
and proved, particularly in his celebrated speech against 
Colonel Hayne of South Carolina, that the Constitution does 
not confer the right upon a single State, to cut loose from 
the Union at its pleasure. And when, on another occa- 
sion, again the safety of the Union was imperilled, it was 
Henry Clay, the whig, who expressed his gratitude to cer- 
tain democratic members, because in the hour of danger 
they had set aside all considerations of party, and had aided 
him in preserving the Union. Nor would I forget John 
Quincy Adams, who, when he entered upon his presidential 
career, declared that no man who bore a good character and 



18 

was fit for the office lie held, should he deprived of it from 
considerations of party, and who acted in accordance with 
this declaration. Though dead, they speak. They tell us 
that now as in the time of Jefferson there are those, who, 
though they are called by different names, are yet our 
brethren, who are holding the same principles with us ; 
they admonish us, that when the existence of the Union is 
at stake, we for a time at -least ought to keep up our party 
lines less strictly, taking for our platform the JJwion as our 
forefathers have done ; they speak to those in power and 
tell them that in the choice of the men they employ, they 
ought to be guided by merit and not by party considera- 
tions, and they speak to those who hold responsible positions 
under the Government, and remind them that they are 
bound to carry out the policy of the Government, indepen- 
dent of the fact that their associations of party would lead 
them in a different direction. It is this ground which the 
Union men of East Tennessee desire to occupy. "When one 
of our wealthy slaveholders, after monihs of. imprisonment, 
had returned, he was one day near his house, sitting upon 
a fence. Some Confederate soldiers were passing by, and 
one of them called to him to shout for Jefferson Davis. My 
friend refused to do so. " Are you for Lincoln ? " asked the 
other. " I am for the Union," answered my friend, " and if 
Lincoln is for the Union, then am I for Lincoln." The 
soldiers threatened to kill him, but at that time did not do it. 
The Union is with the Union men of East Tennessee the 
])aramount question. Every other is secondary. They are 
willing to lose sight of all party distinctions for a time, if 
the safety of the Union should require it. In this connec- 
tion, however, I must once more allude to the subject of 
slavery. As I have already had an opportunity of showing, 
they are willing to put up with slavery, if that should be 
most conducive to the welfare of the Union, and they are 
willing to do without it, if the good of the Union should 
require it. It was sentiments like these which I expressed 
the other day in a large Democratic meeting. "Ah," said one 
of my hearers, "then that is just as Mr. Lincoln says: 'The 
Union with slavery, if that bo best, the Union partly with 



19 

and partly without slavery if tliat be best, tlie Union Avitli- 
out slavery, if tliat be best ; the Union any way.' " And 
they all approved of the doctrine. I hope the time will 
come when sentiments like these, which were uttered by 
loyal men in Montgomery county in this State, will be gen- 
erally entertained, and when we all shall feel the importance 
of that spirit of forbearance, which in past times has guided 
us safely through so many dangers. 

Among the many means which are used to mislead and 
deceive men, few have been found more efficient than the 
declaration, which we hear so often repeated, that Ave want 
" the Constitution as it is, and the Union as it was." When 
these words are pronounced by certain individuals they are 
exceedingly significant. They mean nothing less than that 
this administration is an abolition administration, that it is 
the cause of the war, that from the beginning it has carried 
on the war to subjugate the South and to set' the negroes 
free, that it is a tyrannical administration subverting the 
Constitution, and that there is no hope for this country 
unless this administration can be overturned, the war bo 
stopped and the rights of the South be acknowledged. By 
it they mean to say that they look with approval upon every 
measure of the Southern leaders, while they have nothing 
but abuse for the administration and those who sustain it, 
that they deeply sympathize with Jefferson Davis and his 
followers, while the men who have been driven from their 
homes, they regard as traitors to the sacred cause of the 
South, upon whom they mean to heap public and private 
insults whenever an opportunity shall ofter. Such is the 
meaning of the words : " The Constitution as it is and the 
Union as it was," when these words come from certain lips. 
It is the very essence of treason, busily engaged in stirring 
up civil war in the North, openly or secretly. When uttered 
by others it is done more thoughtlessly, and the principal 
idea connected with them seems the conviction, that we 
ought to make peace and go on as we did in former times. 
It. would be well, however, if men who make use of these 
words would fairly determine what they ought to mean. I 
also say : Give me the Union as it was. " Give it to me, to 



20 

use tlie language of a clistinguislied East Tennessean,'^ aa 
it "vyas, wlien "Washington to suppress rebellion, sent into 
"VYestern Pennsylvania fifteen thousand men under the com- 
mand of his neiglibor and friend General Lee. . ; . . 
"When Webster and Clay rallied to the support of Andrew 
Jackson, and sent treason whipped and abashed to its lair, 
When Millard Fillmore, called to account for the dis^^osition 
of his fleets in the harbor of Charleston, replied, that he was 
not responsible for his of&cial conduct to the Governor of 
South Carolina." Such " as it was " is the Union I desire. 
Do not speak to me of a Union, such as it was, wiien James 
Buchanan connived at the treason which the members of 
his Cabinet were plotting, or when John C. Breckinridge 
poured forth treason in the Senate of the United States. 
If it even were possible to restore such a Union, it w^ould 
be utterly wanting in the elements necessary for its per- 
petuity. One of the leaders of Secession in East Tennessee, 
a young man full of self-conceit and a captain in the rebel 
army, visited the house of one of our aged Union men, a 
descendant of one of the revolutionary heroes. " Ah," said 
the military fop, strutting up and down the room, " jou old 
men may indeed talk of Washington and of his time as you 
do, but we who are younger have been brought up under 
different influences, and we follow different teachers." It 
is even so, and it would be in vain to think of formino^ a 
Union with men, who utterly repudiate what to the Ameri- 
can patriot are sentiments the most sacred and the most 
true. The South has to be taught that the falsehoods on 
w^hich they attempt to erect their slavery empire are not 
strong enough to serve their purpose, and whenever they 
have been taught it, we may have a Union, as it was in the 
days of this country's glory, a Union, better fitted to bless 
the world than it ever has been before, because chastened 
and purified. 

And there is still another representation made by design- 
ing men, in order to mislead those who are little acquainted 
wdth the condition of affairs in the South. It is said that if 
in consequence of the war the negroes are set free they will 

* Speech of the Hon. Horace Maynard of Tennessee, delivered in the 
House of Representatives, January 31, 1863. 



21 

come to tlie jSTortli and will bring down tlie free labor of the 
North to a ruinous extent. I have lived but six years in the 
South, and I have seen slavery but in Tennessee, in Georgia 
and in j)ortions of South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama. 
As far as my knowledge extends I am fully persuaded that 
statements such as the one referred to are utterly void of 
foundation. Let me say to my readers emphatically, that 
the impressions which many have here in the North con- 
cerning the slaves of the South are extremely erroneous. 
The negroes are attached to the South by many bonds 
which are not easily broken. The South they regard as 
their home, they greatly prefer its climate ; there many of 
them have families to whom they are attached, and church 
relations which they highly value ; there they have an op- 
portunity of making a good living, with but little labor, and 
though many desire to be free and daily pray for the success 
of the Northern arms, yet there is not one of them, I believe, 
who would think of coming North after he has obtained his 
freedom, and is placed in circumstances which will permit 
him quietly to enjoy it. " I care little," said a wealthy slave- 
holder to me, shortly before I left East Tennessee, " whether 
my slaves are set free or not. K they were set free they 
would not leave me. I would pay them what is right, and 
they would continue to work my plantation.'" 

Before concluding I may be permitted to make another 
brief reference to myself. I need not say that Germany is 
dear to me ; in Germany rest the bones of my fathers ; there 
have I lived the beautiful days of my childhood and early youth. 
In Germany there are now living those who are bound to 
me not onl}^ by the ties of blood, but by ties which reach 
fa,r beyond the grave. Yet while Germany is dear to me, I 
have also learnt to love this country during the thirty-five 
years I have lived here. I love it because it has invited 
millions like myself to its hospitable shores ; I love it because 
it has extended its protection not only in distant lands or 
on distant seas, but also in every humble valley and on 
every retired hillside. There the industrious farmer could 
quietly attend to his daily avocation, and in the evening 
return to the circle of his family, as I have done for years. 



' 22 

and there under his own vine and fig-tree lie conld look 
forward to the time when he would peacefully close his life. 
When it seemed to be placed beyond a doubt that the Union 
had ceased to exist, the friends of the South came to me once 
more, and told me that I could have now no objection to 
unite with them. I replied, that when I came to this country, 
I swore allegiance to the Union, that in case the Union had 
indeed ceased to exist, I did not own allegiance either to the 
South or to the North, that I would return to my native 
land and there perhaps after many years, when far advanced 
in life, I would take my children's children upon my knees, 
and with streaming eyes I would tell them of a noble land, 
a powerful Union, of which at one time I was a citizen. 
Since I have come ISTorth and have once more met with old 
friends, who ^\h- the fire of youth are ready to battle for the 
Union, which has protected them for so many years, and 
since I have been brought in contact with so many youthful 
spirits who go to the field of battle with the same spirit 
which filled the heroes of the past, I am strongly impressed 
with the fact that this Union is by no means so near its 
dissolution as some of my Southern friends seemed to think 
it was, and with John Adams I am ready to say, " Sink or " 
swim, live or die, survive or perish, the fortunes of this 
country shall be my fortunes ! " I stood the other day on 
the spot where Melchoir Miihlenburg, the founder of the 
Lutheran church in the United States, had labored for many 
years. There at the time of the revolution and on a certain 
Sabbath he had stood in his pulpit and had preached Christ 
and Him crucified ; he descends from the pulpit, he puts off 
his gown, and he stands there before his astonished con- 
gregation in full military costume. There is a time for 
preaching, he says, and there is a time for fighting, and my 
time for fighting has come." Many clergymen are now 
following his example. I know not what may be in store 
for me, but I am certain that I am in the path of duty in 
addressing these words of solemn warning to such as may 
choose to read them. In what I have written I have briefly 
traced the misrepresentations by which the leaders of the 
South have succeeded in deceiving the great mass of the 



23 

people and tlie misery wliich has been the result of it. If 
the same spirit of deception should be successful here as it 
has been in the South, then the picture I have drawn of East 
Tennessee will be reflected in the valleys and on the hill- 
sides of Pennsylvania, we shall have here indeed the consti- 
tution as it is, but as it is in* the South with its armed mobs, 
its spirit of indiscriminate plunder and its deeds of violence, 
and we shall no longer worry about the danger of having 
the slaves coming North, for we shall be all slaves, railed 
with an iron rod by our Southern masters, and by those few 
Northern sympathizers and demagogues whom anarchy will 
make masters instead of slaves. 

And now, in conclusion, I shall be permitted to make 
another brief reference to one of our "prophets." It is 
Daniel Webster, who in closing the speech, in which he 
proves that the constitution is not a compact between sov- 
ereign States, dwells in a strain of touching sadness on the 
possible future of the United States if the friends of nullifi- 
cation should be able to give practical effect to their opinions. 
" They would prove themselves in his judgment, the most 
skilful architects of ruin, the most effectual extinguishers of 
high raised expectations, the greatest blasters of human 
hopes that any age has produced. They would stand forth 
to proclaim in tones which would pierce the ears of half the 
human race, that the last experiment of representative gov- 
ernment had failed .... Millions of eyes, of those 
who now feed their inherent love of liberty on the success of 
the American example, would turn away on beholding our 
dismemberment, and find no place on earth whereon to rest 
their gratified sight. Amidst the incantations and orgies of 
nullification, . secession, disunion and revolution would be 
celebrated the funeral rites of constitutional and republican 
liberty ! " I am thankful that it is not my task to trace in 
detail how much of the ruin which Daniel "Webster thus 
anticipated has actually come to pass. Mine is a more 
cheerful task. However heart-rending the struggle may be 
through which we are passing, it is not a hopeless struggle 
to him who looks higher than the earth for a solution of it. 
If we see many things passing away which long familiarity 



24 

has endeared to us, it is tliat tliey may be supplanted by 
liiglier and better ones. "Wken tlie city of Geneva, threat- 
ened by tlie Duke of Savoy, the Pope and the Emperor, was 
reduced to the greatest weakness, its inhabitants still re- 
mained undismayed. " Geneva," they said, " is in danger of 
being destroyed, but G'od watches over us ; ' better have war 
and liberty than peace and servitude ; we do not put our 
trust in princes, and to God alone be the honor and glory ! " 
\ How important the lesson which Geneva then was learning, 
and how well for us if we prove equally teachable, if we also 
learn to put our trust more fully in God than we have been 
disposed to do, fearful as the trials may be through which 
we may have to pass, we shall not be left Avithout help. But 
in this respect also our prophets are our teachers. The 
sentiments with which Daniel "Webster closed the speech, 
I have referred to, and which are conceived in this spirit 
we are fearlessly to put into action. "With my whole 
heart I pray for the continuance of the domestic peace 
and quiet of the country. I desire, most ardently, the 
restoration of affection and harmony to all its parts. I desire 
that every citizen of the whole country may look to this 
government with no other sentiments than those of grateful 
respect and attachment, but I cannot yield even to kind 
feelings the cause t)f the constitution, the true glory of the 
country, and the great trust which we hold in our hands for 
succeeding ages. If the constitution cannot be maintained 
without meeting these scenes of commotion and contest how- 
ever unwelcome, they must come. We cannot, we must not, 
we dare not omit to do that which in our judgment, the 
safety of the Union requires .... I am ready to 
perform my own ajipropriate part, whenever and wherever 
the occasion may call on me, and to take my chance among 
those upon whom blows may fall first and fall thickest. I 
shall exert every facult}^ I possess in aiding to prevent the 
constitution from being nullified, destroyed or impaired ; 
and even should I see it fall, I will still with a voice feeble, 
perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and 
with fidelity and zeal which nothing shall extinguish, call 
on the PEOPLE to come to its rescue." 



SKETCHES OF EAST TENNESSEE LIFE, 



(25) 



SKETCHES OF EAST TENNESSEE LIFE. 

"East Tennessee ! Secluded land, 
Of gentle hills and mountains grand, 
Where healthful breezes ever blow, 
And coolest springs and rivers flow ; 
Where yellow wheat and waving corn 
Are liberal poured from jilenty's horn, — 
Land of the valley and the glen, 
Of lovely maids and stalwart men ; 
Thy gorgeous sunsets well may vie. 
In splendor with Italian sky. 
* * * * * * 

Enchanting land ! where nature showers 
Her fairest fruits and gaudiest flowers ; 
Where stately forests wide expand. 
Inviting the industrious hand, 
And all the searching eye can view 
Is beautiful and useful too ; — 
Who knows thee well, is sure to love, 
Where'er his wandering footsteps rove, 
And backward ever turns to thee. 
With fond regretful memory ; 
Feeling his heart impatient burn 
Among thy mountains to return !" 

" East Tennessee. By an East Tennessean." 

When, on a certain occasion, the opinion of a distinguished 
theologian was quoted, the reply given was, that that had been 
his opinion the year before, implying thereby that the theolo- 
gian in question was somewhat noted for frequently changing 
his opinions. Many have said and felt that within the last 
three or four years they have been very much in the condition 
of the theologian referred to, having changed not only their 
opinions, but some of their most cherished convictions. I 
am well aware that in this respect I do not form an excep- 
tion to the general rule, and I can only express the hope 
that my readers will find that if I have changed, I have not 
changed without a cause. 

As these are the days of romantic adventure and of hair- 
breadth deliverances, I shall be very brief with regard to 

(27) 



28 

the dangers wliicli I encountered in making mj escape from 
East Tennessee. 

On Saturday, the 25t'h of April, 1862, I had reason to ex- 
pect that several armed men were in search of me. About 
eleven o'clock, A. M., I left my house without changing my 
dress, in order to give the impression to those I met that I 
was not embarking on a long journey. I reached the house of 
a Union man and there staid over night. "When on the next 
morning I came to the Clinch river, I found that river had 
been stripped by the rebels of all the canoes and ferry boats. 
I was in imminent danger of being discovered and arrested, 
when a slave informed me that another slave had concealed 
a boat in order to visit his wife who lived on the other side . 
of the river. An arrangement was made that the slave 
should come to a certain spot on Monday morning before 
daylight, so that I might reach a place of safety before the 
rebel cavalry entered upon their daily work of scouring the 
country. 

Long before day I was at the appointed spot. I waited 
and waited, and had given up almost all hope, when I heard 
the noise of the approaching boat, and soon afterwards saw 
it coming towards me. Little can I describe the revulsion 
of feeling which I at that moment experienced. The sun 
had risen, and for more than an hour the birds on the trees 
around me had welcomed him ; the river had been peacefully 
flowing at my feet ; the cattle had gone forth to graze on the 
meadows and the hills before me ; a scene of rare beauty had 
courted my attention, but I had had ear and eye only for the 
boat which was to take me to a place of safety. 

I was -then about thirteen miles from my home, ten miles 
more I had been told would bring me to the house of B. R.,* 
and with him I would be safe. I walked as fast as I well 
could; at last I could walk no further. A few hundred 
yards from the house I wished to reach I had sat down to 
rest, when a horseman rode up to me. I told him that I 
was on my way to B. R. ''I am B. R.," replied he. "Then 
with you I am safe." " Not with me ; my son-in-law is a Con- 

* These are not tha initials of the name of the man here referred to. 



29 

federate soldier, you would be arrested the moment yon 
entered my bouse." He then showed me a path by which I 
might avoid being seen from his house, and which would 
take mo to a place of safety. The path referred to led up to 
Ire top of a steep mountain. As I slowly ascended it I again 
and again went to the margin of the woods in order to find 
out whether I might still be discovered from the house I was 
endeavoring to avoid. It seemed to me as if I could not get 
out of its reach, and my excited imagination seemed to dis- 
cover some one on tlie watch for me at each of its windows. 
At last, hov/ever, I arrived at the top of the mountain, the 
house was still in sight, but so far below me that no eye 
from thence could reach my place of safety. Then I fell on 
my knees and thanked God. 

On Monday night I enjoyed the hospitality of a Union 
family, and on Tuesday I left Anderson county and crossed 
into Scott county. In the year 1860, I had travelled 
through this county as agent of the Bible Society, and had 
become intimately acquainted with its inhabitants, as well as 
with several of its mountain passes. Little had I anticipated 
that my escape from imprisonment or death would be facili- 
tated by the friends to whom I then ministered and by tho 
intimate knowledge of the country which I then acquired. 
On Vv''eduosday morning I stood once more on the mountain 
which overlooks Powell's A''alley and at the foot of which 
lies the town of Jacksboro, the county seat of Carapbell's 
county. Down that valley I had often gone on the way to 
my home. This time, however, my course lay in a different 
direction. I descended the north side of the mountain and 
passing down Elk creek valley reached on Thursday morn- 
ing the East Tennessee troops at Camp Spears on the line of 
Campbell county, Tenn., and Whitley count}', Ky. In tho 
Ibllowing week, when the men who had been in pursuit of 
me called for the third time at my house in quest of me, my 
wife had received information of m}' safe arrival at the 
Federal army, and was cheered by the thought that I was 
beyond the reach of capture. In that week also, I received 
news from home. So active, was at that time, the secret 



30 

intercourse between our army auil tlie Union men of East 
Tennessee. 

Two years and a half haJ paused wlien I was permitted to 
visit once more tlie home I had been compelled to leave so 
suddenly. Great, indeed, was the change which in the mean- 
time had taken place. On the 22d of October of this year it 
was my privilege to stand in the Court House in the city of 
Knoxville in the same s|)Ot where three years before I had 
seen the rebel Judge Humphreys, and arraigned before him 
a number of Union men. I there had heard the State's attor- 
ney make the charge and the Judge pronounce the sentence, 
wliile the rebel flag which was within that hall told of the 
mockery of justice which was going on there. "Whore now 
was the Judge? Where the State's attorney? Where the 
c]Owd of rebels that filled that hall, and where tlie band of 
soldiers that surrounded that rebel flag? They v/ere gone, 
and Union men who at that time were ever on the lookout 
for a hiding place from the bitter hatred of these men could 
now freely assemble. Equally great was the change which 
had taken place outside of that hall. Where was the glorious 
'• chivalry" which so proudly walked these streets, taking 
special pleasure in insulting Union men after they robbed 
them of their arms? Where the distinguished orators who 
were ever read}^ in set speech to laud the '; noble defenders" 
for going where they did not mean to go? Where the 
staunch friends of the rebel cause, who freely gave their 
money for it, or, if they loved their money too well, their 
best wishes ? And where those apostles of a new dispensa- 
tion which was to establish a mighty empire on the glorious 
and everlasting foundation of the divine institution of 
slavery ? They were gone, and in their j)laces I beheld the 
familiar faces of the Union men and women of East Tennes- 
see, protected by East Tennessee and Northern troops, over 
whom were floating the Stars and Stripes. A portion of the 
garrison consisted of colored troops, and many of those whom 
I had known as slaves, from various reasons, were slaves no 
more, and were handsomely supporting their families by 
their industry. 

Yet while a favorable change had taken place in the con- 



31 

dition of the Union men of East Tennessee, there was room 
left for improvement. I encountered in the streets of Knox- 
ville those who had been leaders in the cause of the rebellion. 
Some of them, though they had taken the oath of amnesty. 
were still breathing the old spirit of hostility to the Union. 
I told one of them that he had committed a great wrong 
against his country. He replied that that remained yet to be 
seen. Another, who knew not my political position, declared 
that he was as great a rebel as ever, that he had a right to be 
a rebel, and that he was ready to do over again all that he 
had done. Shortly before my arrival in Knoxville, some of 
these men had been guilty of such acts of violence, that the 
Union men had been compelled to take the law into their 
own hands. One of the results of this course is a change of 
residence on the part of many. Of this I received a some- 
what striking proof in meeeting incidentally with one of my 
former neighbors. In the dark days of December in 1861, 
this neighbor had come to my house, and in the course of a 
long conversation he had told me that I now clearly saw that 
the men of the North were a set of cowards; they would not 
fight, and all the South had to do was to draw a line along 
the Ohio river, to erect fortifications opposite Cincinnati, and 
whenever the North stole a negro to fire right into the city. 
On revisiting East Tennessee I happened to call at his house. 
I found him and his whole family on the point of moving to 
the North. He could not stay in East Tennessee, he said, 
two shots had been fired into his house. I asked him what had 
become of the line he intended to draw along the Ohio river. 
He thought that was all over. I gave him a line to a friend 
of mine at the North, and felt, while doing it, that the 
country would gain more, if some greater transgressor than 
he were removed from within its borders. 

But I turn to brighter aspects of the picture I am drawing. 
Whenever we glance at the mineral wealth of the United 
States we are generally disposed to give free scope to our 
thoughts; starting at the Rocky mountains we rest not till 
they have arrived at the Sierra Nevada. I appreciate the fact 
that in the Western states and territories, the government of 
the United States is still the sole proprietor of this exhaustless 



82 

wealth. Yet I am not disposed to undervalue on that account 
the mineral wealth of Tennessee and of the states which border 
on it. Let the war be ended and there will come with free 
labor the spirit of enterprise and the liberal use of capital. 
Let this mountain region be joined to Cincinnati by a rail- 
road passing through the Cumberland Gap, and to Philadel- 
])hia by one passing through Western Virginia, and as by 
the magic wand of some mighty wizard, the iron, the coal, 
the nitre, the zink, the lead, the copper, the saltpetre, the salt, 
and the marble of this region will be brought to light. With 
the cotton region in their immediate vicinity, the streams 
Avhich now flow down these mountains in idle beauty, will 
1)6 made to turn the wheels of numberless manufactures, 
while the generous fruit of the vine will cover those moun- 
tain sides. Cities, towns and villages will be linked to each 
other by the common interest of commercial enterprise, and 
as schools and churches, and the faithful labors of an enlight- 
ened ministry are multiplied, these mighty mountain fast- 
nesses, which God Himself has formed, will be manned by a 
population capable of doing their part in guarding the 
temporal, moral, and spiritual interests of the nation. The 
rebels have made light of many losses, but they have never 
made light of the loss of East Tennessee. According to the 
rebel press, it was the hardest blow that had been struck 
them since the beginning of the war, for the possession of 
East Tennessee- admitted the enemy to the very vitals of the 
Confederacy " What," they asked, " is to become of the 
Southern armies, if they are deprived of the nitre, the coal, 
the iron, the saltpetre, the lead, and the salt of East Tennes- 
see ? IIow are they to be fed without her cattle and her 
hogs ?" And louder than any testimony of the rebel press 
on this point, speak Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Look- 
out Mountain, and the desperate assaults of Longstreet on 
Knoxville. 

In noticing the steps which have been taken to prepare 
this better state of things, I would not willingly pass by the 
generous spirit with Avhich "the North has come to the help 
of East Tennessee. Again and again I learned from the lips 
of those who are best acquainted with the history of these 



33 

benevolent movements, that but for this timely help many 
would have died from want of food. The Rev. T. W. Humes, 
of the Episcopal Church, who, at the time I left East Ten- 
nessee in 1861, was not excepted from the persecution which 
more or less visited every faithful Union man, I i'ound devoted 
to this work. B3' his personal influence he had kept in com- 
biiied and benevolent action elements, which, in many re- 
spects, seemed to harmonize but little. In now recalling, on 
the one hand, the scenes of suilering which I witnessed in 
the two '•' homes" for refugees in the city of Knoxville, and. 
on the other, the abundance of means enjoyed by some ot 
those who had been most active in producing these sufferings, 
the question readily presents itself whether the wealth which 
these men have obtained in rebelling against their country 
might not be made to contribute to the relief of those who 
liave lost their all. 

The interest felt by those who have suffered oppression 
and persecution has not been confined to the narrow bounds 
of East Tennessee. Other portions of our country have 
justly come in for their share of attention. I hardly know 
a better way to impress us with a sense of the blessings we 
enjoy than by contrasting them with the scene of suffering 
and want which the Union Commission of the city of New 
York has drawn. Yet while all deserve attention, I still 
trust that the fact will not be left out of sight that the late 
incursion of the rebels and the inclemency of the season, 
must greatly add to the suffering of East Tennessee. 

Having made these statements concerning the present 
condition and the probable future of East Tennessee, and 
of the mountain region, of. which it forms a part, I cannot 
but dwell briefly on some of the topics which they call to 
mind. I have referred to some of them on a former occasion, 
but the events which have since taken place have in a 
measure modified the views I have expressed. 

^Yhen, in the spring of 1861, the rebellion broke out, and 
found me in the South, and when for months afterwards our 
very existence as a nation seemed in danger, I felt disposed 
to turn away from the present, which had for me nothing 
bvit sorrow,, in order to dwell on the happier days of the past. 



84 

For months I occupied myself almost exclusively witli 
the works of those who had founded or defended the institu- 
tions of this country. I came here when John Qumcy 
Adams occupied the Presidential Chair; I had admired the 
course taken by Andrew Jackson when he encountered the 
spirit of Secession ; step by step at my humble distance, T 
had followed Henry Clay and Daniel Webster in their strug- 
gles for the Union. To them my heart now turned, and to 
them I looked for light. But when I had reached the North. 
and there beheld the energy and hopefulness of the great 
mass of the people, and the readiness with which they brought 
every sacrifice; when in my daily intercourse with the sick, 
the wounded and the dying soldiers, I received the most 
elevating and touching proofs of the patriotism by which 
they were animated, I learned to feel, that if other ages had 
their peculiar tasks allotted to them, so must ours have, and 
I was led to inquire, whether perchance I had not been led 
into serious errors. For more than twenty years of my life 
I had sided with those friends of the Union, who had granted 
to the slaveholders whatever they demanded in order to 
secure to them the possession of their slaves, yet in spite of 
all this, these slaveholders had attempted to break to pieces 
the Union for which they had professed so ardent a love. 
Had I been mistaken in my course ? Was there something 
in the very character of slavery which would necessarily 
produce such results ? I had laughed at the idea of an irre- 
pressible conflict between slavery and freedom ; was there, 
after all, some truth in it. I will not detain the reader with 
the particulars of the examination in which I engaged in 
order to obtain a satisfactory answer to these inquiries. 
Suffice it to state some of its results. 

To some it may seem strange that it was only after some 
reading, and after having passed through a certain moral 
and intellectual struggle, that I arrived at the conclusion 
that the error into which I had fallen, and which lay at the 
foundation of much that had been wrong in my political 
course, consisted in this: that I had shut my eyes against the 
truth, that the Creator has breathed into every human soul 
the right of life and of liberty ; that I had failed to see that 



35 

God could never have intended that man whom he had 
created in his ftwn image, should be treated as a piece of pro- 
perty. In the light of this truth I was no longer without the 
means of judging why those who had established this Govern- 
ment had suffered the seeds of discord to mingle with it. 
The practice of enslaving men had produced the eftect which 
every transgression of the divine law produces; it had 
h:n\lenetl the hearts and darkened the minds of those who 
had been engaged in or had countenanced this traffic. To 
this must be ascribed the fact, that at the time when the 
Constitution was framed, there were Southern States to be 
found who did not hesitate to demand that security should 
bo given them, so that they might continue the African slave 
trade undisturbedly, and that the convention gave them that 
security for twenty years more. And to this must also be 
ascribed that other fact that with the question of representation 
the claim of certain Southern States had come up, that their 
.slaves, though they regarded them as property should be 
represented in Congress, and that that claim also had been 
granted as far as three-fifths of the slave population were 
concerned. 

It does not belong to me on the present occasion to pre- 
sent in detail the consequences which followed from these 
worse than unwise measures. Mine is not the sad task of 
tracing the gradual progress of ilie spirit of selfishness in 
many of its worst forms, which the existence of slavery 
served to excite and to foster. It is only a brief reference to 
this subject which comes within my scope, 

I have, on a former occasion, dwelt on the fact that in con- 
sequence of the competition of slave labor the emigrants 
from abroad preferred settling in the North, that in the same 
measure as Slave States were added to the Union, they added 
also to the weakness of the South, and that finding the 
struggle utterly unequal, the South had resol\5ed to destroy 
the Union by seceding from it. I have spoken of the spirit 
which animated the thousands who rushed to the field of 
battle after Fort Sumter had fallen, and of the issuing of the 
proclamation of emancipation as a military measure, in order 
to deprive the rebellion of its principal means of support. 



36 

These topics have boen widely discussed, and on that 
account are well known to most of my readers. It is not so 
easy to trace the less apparent influences in consequence of 
which a large portion of the people of the United States hold 
now a position Avith regard to slaver}"- which is very different 
from the ground which they occupied at the beginning oi' 
the rebellion. It is on account of t!ie change which has thus 
generally taken place, tliat I have felt h'ss hesitation to prove 
by the remarks wliich I liave made, that I am not an exception 
to the general rule. The moral and intellectual torpor in 
which the great mass of the people of the United States have 
been with regard to the subject of slavery, and the suddenness 
with which they have been roused, surpasses in strangeness 
the marvellous tale of the sleeper of Manhattan, and it is not 
wonderful that some amongst those who have been thus 
suddenly aroused should hardly know what they sav or do. 
and should forget that there are other sins besides the sin of 
slavery of which we^ as a nation, have to repent in order to 
enjoy the favor of God, 

From the course which the South has pursued it is evident 
that if we seek for the men to whom the abolition of slavery 
must be ascribed, we must not go to Maine, Massachusetts or 
Ohio, but to the home of Jefferson Davis, and to those who 
with him have stirred wp this rebellion. As for my self j my 
teachers have been the effects which slavery has produced on 
those who own slaves, and on the masses of the people whci 
do not own them, but who are injured by being brought in 
close and constant contact with the institution. On me, also, 
the shot fired at Fort Sumter has produced a lasting impres- 
sion, and I can now understand why it was that on first 
visiting the South, it was not without a choking sensation 
that I could ask a colored man whose property he was, or 
why I was strenuously in favor of the fugitive slave law, and 
yet equally cietermined not to interfere with any slave who 
might endeavor to get away. I had left unheeded the irre- 
])ressible conflict in my own heart. 

In summing up these somewhat desultory observations I 
shall once more refer to one whom I always honored, but 
whom the convulsions of our time have taught me to appre- 



37 

ciate far more highly than T had done till that time. I came 
to this country in 1828. Five or six years before that time, 
John Quincy Adams had summed up the views he enter- 
tained on the subject of slavery, by stating that it would not 
bo difficult to prove, that all that had been done to the honor 
of this cov.ntry had been done in spite of slavery, and all 
that had been dishonorable to it had been done by the means 
of slavery. In view of the light which the rebellion sheds 
on the history of this country, I am ready to adopt the words 
of John Quincy Adams, with regard to the years which have 
gone by since he wrote them, and to say that it is high time 
to abolish an institution which has been the means of causing 
so much evil and of inflicting so much injury. 

The influence which the introduction of free labor will 
have in the South is likely, among many others, to produce 
two effects. I have already attended to the fact that it will 
do away with that undue deference with which for many 
years past the " chivalry" of the South have been treated- 
It will also set us right with regard to many questions con- 
cerning the colored people, which now seem diflicult of solu- 
tion. There may be much hesitation in various quarters, but 
public opinion will decide at last that men are not to be 
judged by the color of their skin, but by their hearts and 
their conduct. Men may bo alarmed at the thought, that if 
this maxim were to prevail, it must lead to the strangest 
results. ""What," they may ask, "will become of society 
when the colored people are suffered to mingle freely with 
the whites, when the right of citizenship is extended to a 
race, which learned divines as well as physicians equally 
learned, have declared to be an inferior one ? And what 
especially will become of those Southern States, where the 
colored people are in the majority. These, and many similar 
questions will be brought more and more to the test of history 
and I fear not the result. The vast immigration which free 
labor will invite to the South, and the spirit with which it is 
likely to be animated, will dispose of them all. A partial 
solution of this difficulty, however, we are receiving from 
day to day, The better sense and the better feeling of the 
people will not rest till the merits of this case are placed in 



38 

their proper liglit. "When the rebellion first broke out in the 
South we feared that the blacks would rise and butcher the 
whites. How different from this has been the spirit of hu- 
manity by which they have been animated! When -the 
question of emplojnng them in the army first came up, wlujt 
an amount of ridicule was showered upon them, yet how 
})]ainly has their conduct shown how undeserving they wei'c 
of it! Can I forget that when white men sought my ruin, it 
was a colored man who saved me from imprisonment or 
death? And what a volume the record of those would 
make whom the colored people have save<I in a similar 
manner. There is, on this subject, a certain clinging to 
])rejudice, exj)ressed but too often in a way by no means 
elevated, which may be met among a portion of our foreign 
])opulation. It is shared by not a llnv Americans who move 
in a sphere which makes their v/illingness to be swayed by 
]-)rejudice far less excusable. But the more generous feeling 
of the great mass of the people will do away with this spirit, 
or at least make it powerless of evil. 

The spirit manifested by the great mass of the people in 
the midst of the gigantic struggle for its very life in which 
they are engaged is also a pledge of the better future which 
1 anticipate. At the beginning of this struggle, when the 
rebellion seemed to be successful, I, like others, had been led 
to doubt the power of the people for self-government. My 
experience in the progress of it fills me with new hope. 
As for the Presidential election it is certain that the right of 
free discussion has not been improperly infringed, and the 
question at issue has been settled by the enlightened judg- 
ment and the determined will of a vast majority of the 
people. The sight of a nation involved in a fearful civil 
war, and peacefully at the ballot-box choosing the man 
who is to lead them to final victory and peace, may well 
fill us Vv-ith hope. While this canvass was going on, ] 
again and again received messages from my friends at 
the front, telling me that we need not fear concerning 
them ; that they would do their share by the sword to 
preserve the integrity of the country, but that they appealed 
to their friends at home not to be unmindful of their duty. 



They at the front rniglit win victory after victory in this 
war, bat they could do no more, while the loyal men at Lome 
had it in their power to cnisli the seed, which if sufl'ered to 
take root and to grow up would flood the couutr}' in blood 
ior many years to come. With humble gratitude to God we 
now send back to them the cheerful tidings tliat we );av'' 
fought the battle and that the battle has been won. 

There is a tombstone erected in Spain on the grave of 
Columbus which says that Columbus has given a continent 
to the crown of Spain. It is Daniel Webster who, with re- 
gard to this inscription has said that Columbus has done 
more: he has given that continent to the Avorld ! Millions 
of emigrants have said the same and have felt it more deeply. 
j\[any a soldier from distant lands lias been found ready to 
sacrifice health and life to secure to the world that precious 
gh'^t. The aim of the slave power has been to restrict this 
gift-of Columbus and " to exclude from a vast unoccupied 
region emigrants from Europe and free laborers from our 
own States and to convert it into a dreary region inhabited 
by masters and slaves." The question has often been asked, 
how, in view of this fact so many of the European emigrants 
can favor the continuation of slavery? It is a question 
which admits of an answer, but this is not the place to 
give it. 

In conclusion, I shall draw from the storehouse of the past 
two scenes, which have reference to Andrew Johnson, an 
East Tennessean, now Vice President elect of the United 
States. 

In the Spring of 1861, Governor Andrew Johnson, then a 
Senator of the United States, was addressing a large assembly 
of Union men in one of the streets of the city of Knoxvillc. 
While doing so, John D. Crozier, formerly a member of Con- 
gress and now a fugitive in the South, endeavored to induce 
a company of rebel cavalry who were then in town to fall 
upon the Union men. Several prominent citizens, though 
strongly in favor of the rebellion, succeeded in preventing 
the catastrophy. This is the first scene. 

The second is this : On the 8th of June of the year 1864, 
I found mvself in the midst of a vast crowd in one of the halls 



40 

of the city of Baltimore. Abraham Lincoln had been unani- 
mously nominated President of the United States, and the 
time had come to nominate the Vice President Soon after the 
voting had commenced shout after shout was heard, and with 
these shouts was mingling the name of Andrew Johnson. A 
lew minutes later he was unanimously nominated Vice Presi- 
dent of the United States. As I heard it and thought of the 
scenes of humiliation through which Andrew Johnson had 
passed, I remembered that "God resisteth the proud but 
giveth grace to the humble." 

I know no thought better than this with which to conclude. 
In the changes which our time is bringing about, not onl\' 
christians but men of the world are constrained to recognize 
the agency of a higher power, and to declare that this is in- 
deed "the Lord's doing, and that it is marvellous in our 
eyes." 

It is this humble reliance on the power of God, which is 
the only sure pledge of the safety and perpetuity of this 
Nation. 



LIFE AND DEATH OF A CBRISTIAN SOLDIER 



^41^ 



A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 

CORPORAL CHARLES CRARY. 

"We deem it not strange when here and there a monument 
is erected to some soldier wlio has cheerfully hiid down his 
life for his country; and the distinction thus conferred on a 
few does not, in our estimation, take awaj' one iota from the 
glory which belongs to those who fought as bravely, but 
who sleep in unknown graves. In like manner does a sketch 
of the life and the death of one and the other of our departed 
soldiers by no means lessen the gratitude which we feel for 
thousands of others, who have fought and died equally well, 
but of whose deeds or sufferim^s we know little or nothing. 

The conduct of the late Corporal Charles Crary, during 
the four weeks which preceded his death, was of such a 
character that it made a very deep and solemn impression 
on the minds of the few who became acquainted with him 
at that time, and I even then felt a strong desire to give 
publicity to the closing scenes of his life, that the influence 
of his example might be extended beyond the circle of those 
who had been brought in personal contact with him. The 
daily calls of duty have prevented my sooner carrj-ing out 
this intention. At last, however, I have been enabled to 
prepare this sketch. I present it to the public with the 
earnest prayer, that it may be accompanied by the Spirit 
of God, and that it may do good to the hearts of many. 

The spirit of depression which had pervaded the com- 
munity during the latter part of June, 1863, had been 
changed into a spirit of joy and gratitude. The accouut 
of the victory of Gettysburg had been succeeded by the 
tidings from Yicksburg, announcini? that that stronghold 

(48) 



44 

had fallen. But with this joy was mingled a feeling of sad- 
ness. Our loss had been very great ; and, as far as the battle 
of Gettysburg was concerned, we were soon to obtain visible 
evidence of some of its effects by the wounded who were to 
be placed within the walls of our hospitals. We had nut 
to wait long. Arrival succeeded arrival ; and on the 12th 
of July, every bed in the Turner's Lane Hospital was occu- 
pied. 

As I passed from ward to ward, and engaged in conversa- 
tion with every one who was able to converse, I found that 
I had before me representatives of almost every portion of 
the army by whom the " Three Days" battle had been fought. 
Ilere was one who had been engaged in the unequal conflict 
in which Keynolds fell. Here another who had fought under 
Howard, when that General, with Schurz's and Barlow's 
divisions, came to the relief of the First corps. A third had 
been engaged with Wadsworth when this general repulsed 
the enemy. Some had been with Slocum and Sickles, and 
had been wounded in the conflict which took place the 
second day; others had been with Geary, when he drove 
Ewell from the foothold which the latter had gained at 
Spangler's Spring ; and still others had been wounded on the 
third day, when the fearful struggle was going on which 
terminated in the repulse of Longstreet, Hill and Pickett. 
The condition in which many of them were, was well calcu- 
lated to call forth my deepest sympathies. Among them was 
a young man who had lost both his eyes, and who was 
endeavoring to soothe his pain by repeating passages of 
Scripture and hymns which he had learnt in his childhood ; 
another had been wounded in the knee in a manner which 
did not admit of an operation. He was unceasingly engaged 
in earnest prayer ; still another, feeling death to be near, was 
sending his last messages to one he loved. I had arrived 
nearly at the end of the last ward, when I approached a 
young man who, I was told, had been shot through the right 
lung. In my conversation with him, I alluded to the comfort 
to be derived from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when he 
joyfully testified that for years that faith had been his sup- 
port. This was Corporal Charles Crary. Li his case, as in 



45 

the case of so many others, the attack made upon Fort 
Sumter had given rise to thoughts and emotions, which, 
thousands of times, have since then been eloquently expressed 
in poetry and in prose, but which on that account do not lose 
in force or beauty when coming from the lips of a dying 
soldier. The country, which to him had seemed more firmly 
established than other, had been threatened with dissolution ; 
the flag, which to him had been the emblem of power at 
home and abroad, had been dishonored; the Union, which 
had been endeared to him from the days of his earliest child- 
hood, had been rejected with scorn and contempt. The 
calumnies and the insults with which the South had assailed 
North, he had regarded with astonishment, but borne with 
patience ; but not for a moment could he endure the thought 
that his country, with its free institutions, should be swept 
away — that the flag, till then so highly honored, should 
become the emblem of weakness and of shame, and that the 
Union, which had been to him the cause of so many bless- 
ings, should be supplanted by a multitude of independent 
States and cities, engaged in endless feuds against each other. 
Charles Crary, to use his own words, had felt that his country 
called him, and he could not but respond to the call. His 
position in Detroit had had much to attach him to his home, 
and to the circle of his friends — the relations with which he 
stood to the church, of which he was a member — had been 
of a peculiarly endearing character ; his employment in a 
printing office furnished him with sufiicient support ; yet he 
had bade a cheerful farewell to all these in order to take his 
share in the defence of his country. He enlisted in the 24th 
Michigan Infantry on the 29th of July, 1861 ; and after 
having taken part in the battles of Fredericksburg and 
Chancellorville, he had been mortally wounded in the battle 
of Gettysburg. 

The letters which he had written previous to his removal 
to the Turner's Lane Hospital, manifest a spirit of patriotic 
devotion which is not the less beautiful, because it is united 
with a strong love for his home, and an earnest devotion to 
his God and Saviour. To one of his relations, who had 
inquired why he had entered the array, he wrote : " I thought 



46 

I could see that the time had come for me to do my share to 
keep the glorious old ensign of the Kepublic up at his full 
height, and to help to suppress the rebellion against the 
Constitution's life." 

In another letter he speaks of the good chaplain with 
whom the Twenty-fourth was favored, and of a custom 
adopted by the "boys" of his company. They would get 
together a short time before the retreat was beaten, and take 
turns in reading a chapter in the New Testament. 

In the same strain he writes at another time : " j.n roving 
about the camp, when off duty, I have found one of the 
finest little spots, where I can retire when I wished to read, 
write, or rest, undisturbed : it is by the side of a little rippling 
brook which rises on the hillside, and is carpeted with nice 
green grass, and shaded by fine old trees, many of which are 
over-grown with grape-vines, giving it quite a romantic 
appearance." 

On the 27th of November, a day of thanksgiving, his 
heart overflowed with gratitude over "hard tack and tough 
beef," and over the good effect which the toughening process 
of soldiering had on his health. In a letter written shortly 
after Christmas, and called forth partly by a Christmas-box, 
which had been sent to "dear brother Charley" from his 
home, he visits in imagination the circle of his loved ones ; 
and, leaping over years of struggle, he sees the Twenty-fourth 
disembarking from the Cleveland boat, and marching up one 
of the streets of the city of Detroit, not so strong as when 
they left, but every man a soldier — the step steady and firm 
— waving over them the old flag tattered and torn, as well it 
■might be. He hears the cheers of welcome, he thanks God 
that the war is over, and at the familiar sound of " Break 
ranks, march !" he knows well what line of march one of the 
number of that regiment is taking. At another time, in 
writing to his father, who had admonished him to keep up 
good courage and to take care of his health, he writes in a 
strain which shows that his gentle nature could be easily 
roused whenever placed face to face with disloyalty. " I do 
not think," he writes, "my courage will need much propping 
so long as there are rebels in arms ; and although the cause 



47 

of the Union looks a little cloudy now, on account of the 
rebels holding out so persistently at Vicksburg, I have full 
faith that it must fall, and with it the dearest hopes of the 
Confederates." 

In a similar manner he speaks, in another letter, of the 
contempt with wliich the army regards those in the North 
who are guilty of disloj^alty. "Soldiers," he writes, "who 
offer their lives in dQfence of their country will not forget 
traitors, who, in their absence, are using every effort to undo 
their work. , . You may well say, ' The army is a unit.' " 

These quotations exhibit the spirit which pervades all the 
letters of Charles Crary. Cool on the day of battle, and 
patient when suffering from severe exposure, he was yet 
unwilling that his loved ones at home shouldTbe troubled on 
account of the dangers to which he was exposed. In con- 
sequence of it, there is constantly mingling in these letters that 
disregard of self which characterizes the brave soldier and 
that tenderness for others which belongs to the loving heart. 

The letter which he wrote after he had received his death- 
wound, will be better appreciated by the reader after he has 
perused the following account of some of the occurrences 
which took place at that period. It has been prepared, at 
my request, by Mr. James F. Clegg, also of the 24th, who 
had been his constant companion from the time they both 
had enlisted together in the city of Detroit, and who had 
been wounded in the same battle : 

" The Twenty-fourth Michigan is one of the regiments 
composing the old 'Iron Brigade' of General Meredith. It 
was in Wads worth's First division of the First army corps, 
commanded at that time by General Rejmolds. This brigade 
is one of the oldest in the Army of the Potomac, and has 
distinguished itself on many battle-fields. Having arrived 
near Gettysburg, the First corps moved from a point about 
five miles south of Gettysburg, on Wednesday morning, the 
1st of July, the Iron Brigade at the head. Charley and I 
marched along the road till we came within a mile of Gettys- 
burg, when we heard the first shot of the great battle, and 
saw the explosion of a shell directly over the house of Dr. 
Schmucker, to the ri;i-ht of the Seminary. We turned to the 



left, and double-quicked it up to Willoughby's Run, and 
across the Hagerstovvn road. We relieved the cavalry, who 
had been skirmishing previous to our arrival, and climbed 
the little hill east of the run. General Keyuolds fell about 
this time, and Doubleday took command. We scarce reached 
the crest when we received a volley from a concealed foe; 
and with orders, the regiment fixed bayonets, loaded, fired, 
and charged, capturing a large number of rebels in the 
ravine. I noticed that Charley appeared more serious this 
morning than usual ; his manner was more earnest ; he per- 
formed his duty with his usual alacrity, but his countenance 
showed determination, rather than the fire visible on similar 
occasions. We took position in the woods on the bank of 
Willoughby's Run. We were not in the position given by 
many charts of that field, but were on the extreme left of the 
corps. One regiment only — the Nineteenth Indiana — being 
left of the Twenty-fourth. 

The corps lay in the woods perhaps two or three hours, 
with some skirmishing between the pickets, when the rebel 
army emerged from the woods about three hundred yards 
in front. Three lines advanced upon our single line, and 
their right overlapped our left perhaps a quarter of a mile. 
The fighting commenced immediately, but the rebels con- 
tinued to advance. The corps posted on our right falling 
back, we were flanked on the risjht: turning to the left, we 
saw the enemy almost in our rear. Being thus flanked on 
both sides, and in danger of being captured, we fell back 
slowly, firing constantly, forming and reforming lines, but 
only to be driven back again. For nearly a mile the brigade 
fought, and was always in rear of the retreating forces. Nine 
out of the 24th's color-bearers fell. The colonel seized them, 
planted them in the ground, and called to the regiment, now 
scattered over all the field, to rally round the colors. And 
they did — all who could hear him — and fought until the 
enemy were literally upon them, when the few left were also 
compelled to fall back. I saw Charley at this time ; he fell 
but a minute afterwards. Our next meeting was in the 
Seminary Hospital, then held by the enemy. Two men 
carried him up toward the back steps, at about 5 o'clock 



4f9 

in the evening. Seeing him carried towards tlie hospital, I 
ran out to assist him. The men left when they saw some 
one who knew him. Charley expressed sorrow on seeing 
me wounded, but pleasure at our being still together. A 
stream of blood was slowly trickling down from his right 
shoulder, and he Avas very weak. lie rested that night in 
the great hall of the Seminary, among the hundreds of 
wcAmded who literally crammed it, and rendered night fear- 
ful by their groans and cries. Next morning he moved to 
the recitation room, where he v/as much more comfortable^ 
for we occupied it alone. But it was dangerous at times ; 
for the enemy planted a battery at each corner -of the hos- 
pital, and the return shots of our batteries frequently struck 
the building. Some shots passed directly through the room 
he was in. We were often compelled to leave the room and 
seek shelter in the hall. Once the shells were exploding all 
around the building, and I helped him to the hall; but wc 
had barely closed the door, when we heard a great explosion 
in the room. I saw, when the firing ceased, a fragment of a 
shell in the centre of the narrow bed he occupied. You 
cannot imagine the relief we felt on Sunday, the 5th, when 
daylight showed us that the rebel army had utterly dis- 
appeared. It was equalled only by the people in the town, 
who for the first time had been forced to submit to this 
terrible ordeal. It was some time before our wounds were 
treated, for the enemy had taken all the surgical instruments 
from our surgeons. Charley frequently asked to hear the 
Holy Scriptures read ; and from the old Bible in the teacher's 
desk, I read to him such passages as he wished to hear. He 
preferred the New Testament and Psalms. I remember one 
which he often wished me to read (the 139th), and he always 
would remain in meditation for some time after. He re- 
mained in the Seminary until the 9th, when the surgeon told 
us that all who were able to leave must do so, and go to the 
general hospitals. Charley did not wish to remain : he arose, 
and with difficulty reached the depot. He expected to be 
sent to Michigan, but was not displeased when he reached 
Philadelphia, and was placed in the Turner's Lane Hospital, for 
he feared the distance. He showed orpeat interest in his 



66 

couutiy's cause during tbe week of victories, and was always 
pleased to hear any one read of the progress of the war. I 
well remember the pride he showed when hearing of our corps' 
fighting on that day, and the sorrow when he heard of the 
great loss his own regiment had sustained : ' Only ninety of 
my five hundred comrades left !' " 

While at the Seminary in Gettysburg he wrote the follow- 
ing letter, which, through the kindness of Mrs. Crary. is 
now before me. It is written with a pencil : 

Gettysbueg, Pa., July Q(h, 1863. 

" Dear Mother : — We have met the enemy and have 
driven him out of Pennsylvania. The fight was a hard one, 
I was struck in the shoulder July 1st, so as to deprive me of 
the use of my right arm for the present. I. am doing well 
now, and think I shall be all right in a couple of months. 
Clegg is here also — wounded slightly in the right arm, be- 
tween the elbow and the hand — no bone is broken. My 
wound is in rather a bad place, but the doctor says I Avill 
come out all right. I do not know what I would have done 
without Clegg's help. His wound is so slight that, except 
the use of his right arm, he is as good as new ware. As 
there were many worse than me, and so few doctors, and we 
in the rebels' hands part of the time (three days), T should 
have suffered but for him. But God is good. I am not very 
badly wounded, and in good health and spirits. I must 

close no^y, for it is hard work to write left-handed 

There are but six men and no officers in our Company." 

From these letters my readers are enabled to form some 
idea of the character of the subject of this sketch. What I 
have seen of him during my intercourse with him while in 
our hospital, filled me with a desire to know more of his 
early life. The light which the following extracts throw on 
this subject will, no doubt, prove generally interesting. 
They are taken from a letter which Mrs. Crary had the 
kindness to address to me in reply to one of mine. " The 
memory of that beloved boy,'' writes Mrs. Crary, " is indeed 
precious. He was but an inftmt when I first professed re- 



61 

ligion ; and in the first warm gushing love of a new-born 
soul, I felt a desire, not only to be myself the Lord's, but 
that all I loved and cherished should also be His ; and in niy 
heart I gave my first-born, my well-beloved little Charle}'. 
to Him. The vow made secretly to my God alone, often 
bore heavily on my soul, when I was careless or remiss in 
nurturing and training him for the Lord. Oh ! ray dear 
Christian brother, I cannot express to you the weight that 
was on my heart, when I realized what a fearful reponsibility 
I had taken upon myself. lie was always a pleasant child ; 
but he grew to the age of fourteen without manifesting any 
particular religious feeling. At that time he was away from 
home at Franklin College, Indiana. There was a revival in 
progress in the'place we were then living (Lafayette, Indiana,) 
and many were converted ; and many who were in a cold 
state, were brought to see their wickedness in departing 
from the living God. I, too, was roused from lethargy, and 
felt renewed anxiety for my child. At my earnest solicita- 
tion his father consented to his return home before the close 
of the term. Charley seemed to feel that there must be in 
my mind some great anxiety for him. After he had attended 
the meetings but a few days, he became very seriously im- 
pressed, and begged me to pray for him. At the prayer 
meeting, held at our house the next morning, he felt that the 
burthen of his sins was removed. I have never doubted 
that he was then and there born unto the kingdom of God's 
dear Son. Plis desire was to go immediatly forward and put 
on Christ before the ivorld ; but his father a ver}'- careful 
man, restrained him, fearing from his youth and the excited 
state of his feelings, that he might think himself converted 
when he was not. By his father's request he went back to 
school, without uniting with any Church. About two years 
after, unexpected reverses came upon us, and my husband was 
obliged to close his business (mercantile), to meet his liabili- 
ties. We found a new home, where we were obliged to live 
on much less than my husband formerly paid his clerks. It 
was the Lord's doings, and I thank him for adversity. This 
trial which seemed so grievous, was for our good, and proved 
to mc vay belief had been well founded, that Charley had the 



^2 

grace of God in bis lieart. A few days after we had been 
settled here, he said to me, ' Well, mother, school is done with 
me. If father has to work for his bread, so have I.' 'But,' 
said I, ' my son, what can you do ?' ' Whatever my hand 
findeth to do, I will do it with my might.' He went out; 
and when he returned, said, he had found work in a printing 
office. I do not know that he had ever visited one before, 
and expressed my fears of his success. He said, ' I shall 
try ;' and he did try, and remained in that same of&ce until 
his enlistment in the defence of his country. When he left 
his situation, where he was receiving fifty dollars a month, 
he enlisted as a private. Nothing but filial affection had 
prevented his going when the first call was made ; he feared 
we might suffer for his help, but the good God he loved pro- 
vided for us. It is three years this month (February, 1864). 
I think, since he was ' buried with Christ in baptism ;' but 
more than a year previous to that time he, with a few older 
Christians, had gathered a mission Sabbath-school in one of 
the most destitute suburbs of our city ; and from the time he 
first became interested in it, until his leaving with his regi- 
ment, I don't believe he had been absent more than three 
times. Most of the time he had more than two miles to walk, 
after attending church and the other Sabbath-school, of 
which he was Secretary and Librarian. Whatever the 
weather might be, he would not be detained, saying, ' No ; if 
those poor children can come to be taught, I for one will be 
there to teach them.' The little beginning there made, has 
resulted in the most flourishing Sabbath- school in this city. 
After Charley had united himself with the church, he ex- 
pressed a great desire that his father, who had long been a 
believer, but who was not connected with any church, should 
publicly put on Christ. He often conversed with mo with 
regard to it, and before he left us, he himself begged him to 
do so. (Sinc3 his death that wish has been complied with.) 
He was an active Christian, always trying to be diligent in 
business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. When I was 
lamenting the step he had taken in leaving us for the war, 
he reproved me thus : ' Mother, where is your faith, am I not 
still in my Heavenly Father's hands ?' His letters, of which 



53 

I have many, are always cheerful, breathing a spirit of de- 
pendence on God, and of trusting faith in Him, a faith which 
sustained him to the last. Never, in those fine, precious days, 
1 was permitted to watch beside his dying bed, did I hear 
one murmur from his lips. The first day I was there I asked 
him whether he did not now regret having gone into the 
army. The answer was prompt — 'Never for a moment.' 
' But,' said I, * those cruel-wounds !' ' I am proud,' he an- 
svs'ered, ' of having received them for my country.' I said, 
' Charley, it has been a precious thought to me, that you had 
the Saviour to lean on in your trials.' 'Oh, dear mother,' 
he replied, ' how precious He has been to mo ! He has kept 
me in great temptations and trials, and I can trust in Him 
now !' He never admitted how much bodily suftering he 
was enduring until that last night of his life. Then, in great -^ 
agony he clasped my hand. I said, ' Dear child, how you 
are suffering !' ' Yes, mother,' he replied, ' more than I can 
tell you.' The confession seemed to have been wrung from 
liim, for a moment after he said, 'But I can bear it;' and 
you know he did bear it, bravely, too; His last farewell was 
almost cheerful : ' Dear mother, I am almost worn out now ; 
I'm going home ;' and I trust he rests at home now where 
we shall shortly meet him." 

One more extract, and the picture of the character of 
Charles Crary will be complete, as far as the letters in my 
possession can make it so. Mr. Clegg, the companion of 
Charles Crary, who had come with him to the Turner's Lane 
Hospital, strove day and night to relieve the sufferings of 
his comrade. " If I lose him," he said to me, " I lose my 
best earthly friend." But there was also not wanting, by 
the sick bed of young Crary, the sympathy of women, sup- 
plying, as far as possible, the absence of a mother or a sister's 
love, fanning the heated brow, offering the cooling drink, or 
watching by the side of the sleeping sufferer — offices of 
Christian sympathy which, in this case, received in part their 
deserved reward, when the mother of Charles Crary arrived, 
and poured out the gratitude of a mother's heart for all the 
kindness which had been shown to her wounded boy. One 
of the ladies has kindly furnished me with the following: 



64 

"August 3d, tlie last day of Charley's life, was intensely 
hot. His earnest question, 'Is there no air coming in at the 
window?' was one hard to answer in the negative, and 
showed how painful the struggle for life had become. Indeed, 
it was only by constant hard fanning that he seemed able to 
breathe at all. At one time, a bystander said to one who 
was fanning him, 'Let me take your place — you must be 
tired.' Poor Charley said, 'I am tired;' and when a wisli 
was expressed that he might be rested, he said, ' Oh, it don't 
matter much — it Avill be only a few days longer !' So fevr 
and so simple were the expressions which told us how much 
he was sufferim?. The touchinoj words, ' Mother, I am almost 
worn out, I'm going home,' and a murmured — ' Father !' v/erc 
the last we heard ; and, in a few monients, after a ver}' brief 
struggle, he was at Home, in a land where the inhabitant 
shall no more say, ' I am sick,' and where the wearj^ are at 
'rest.' * * It was with gratitude that those who had been 
permitted to wait upon him acknowledge the privilege, and 
the emptiness of his place was felt when he was taken away. 
He rests now in Elanwood, a cemetery near his Western 
home." 

Having thus availed myself of the knowledge which those 
who best knew Charles Crary were able to furnish, tliere is 
but little for me to add. 

The last days of his life were like his letters home, or like 
those he dictated while in our hospital, full of hope, and 
abounding in expressions of gratitude to God. The hymns 
which we sang from evening to evening in our praj^er meet- 
ings, and which he could overhear while lying on his bed, 
would recall to his mind similar scenes at his home in 
Detroit. The services of the sanctuary, the Sunday-school 
of which, he had had charge, and the meetings for prayer in 
v/hich he had taken a part, would pass in review upon his 
spiritual eye, and would call forth new strains of gratitude, 
on account of the comfort which these reminiscences afforded 
him. There is, however, one recollection which I would not 
willingly pass over in silence. At the very time that earthly 
ties of the most endearing character were breaking asunder, 
the bonds which defv death were shininsf forth in all their 



55 

heavenly brightness. The mother took her darling boy from 
her bosom, where he had so often nestled, to lay him into 
the grave ; but, while doing so, all that seemed dark below 
was lit up by that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which filled 
both mother and son, and b}'" the full assurance that shortly 
they would be united again, never to part. 

The outline of the sermon which elder Chase preached at 
his funeral in Detroit, from Heb. xi., 4. well sums up what 
the pages here presented exhibit somewhat in detail : "Asa 
son, Charles was dutiful and affectionate ; as a young man, 
virtuous, kind, energetic, persevering, modest; as a Chris- 
tian, whole-souled, faithful, earnest, diligent in duty ; as a 
patriot and a soldier, always ready and courageous ; he gave 
his life for his country, 'He being dead, yet speaketh.' " 

A few remarks of a general character, and I have done. 
The spiritual life of Charles Crary has its counterpart in 
every part of the country, and in every relation of life. Of 
this fact I receive new proofs from day to day. There are 
those who, in our own hospital, have become interested in 
the great question of their soul's salvation, or with whom for 
a time I have enjoyed spiritual fellowship, and who are now 
at their homes, or in the front, facing and fighting the enemy. 
Their letters to me plainly show that they are still endeavor- 
ing to fight faithfully the great spiritual battle in which they 
have engaged. Others, again, who have lost with us those 
whom they most dearly loved, have learnt to feel that even 
by such great bereavements, the Lord has brought them 
nearer to himself. On these facts it is almost useless to 
dwell. The cases where the power of God's Spirit has 
been manifested are to be met everyAvhere. There are 
those who, in spite of these facts, are shrugging their shoul- 
ders, thinking that no permanent good is to be expected from 
any such temporary excitements, and yet how strange it 
'would be if it were otherwise. When a child, I lived in the 
midst of events not unlike those of the present day. The 
Prussian monarchy had been crushed by Napoleon ; Queen 
Louisa had died broken-hearted ; and dying, had asked her 
sons, one of whom is now King of Prussia, to die for their 
country, if they could not live for it. But then, Prussia 



56 

humbled herself before the Lord, and going forth with new 
energy, contributed very substantially to the overthrow of 
Napoleon. Such were the effects which the judgments of 
God produced in the case of Prussia ; and would it not be 
strange if, in our case, these judgments would be altogether 
in vain ? But they are not in vain. In many an hospital, 
in many a cam^p, on many a battle-field, in many a dreary 
prison, in many a bereaved home, and on many a lonely 
mountain side, the spirit of God is quickening the hearts of 
men, and is drawing them to himself. It is a knowledge of 
this fact which fills me with new hope, when I am tempted 
to look away from God and to feel discouraged, because 
there is still so much vice prevailing. The leaven is at work, 
and the time may yet come when the kingdom of heaven, 
little indeed in its beginnings, shall be like the tree, in the 
branches of which the birds of the air rejoice to dwell. 

I will join hand in hand with the advocate of temperance ; 
my ear and my heart shall be open in behalf of the enslaved ; 
I will engage in every effort which shall advance the intelli- 
gence of the people ; but never shall I suffer myself to be 
carried away by the popular idea, that by such eftbrts the 
prosperity and the happiness of the people is to be pernia- 
nently secured. To secure them, a far deeper foundation is 
needed. What would you think of a man attempting to dam 
up a stream while the fountain was left to pour forth its 
abundant waters ? As little can you secure the happiness of 
a people as long as you leave the fountain of evil untouched. 
The sin which lies at the root of all our troubles, is that we 
have not believed in the Son of God. The Spirit has come 
to testify of Ilim, and we have not heeded the voice of the 
Spirit. The God-man has come, and has desired to be 
enthroned in our hearts, and we have not admitted him. 
If we, as a nation, persist in this spirit, neither success on 
the battle-field, nor zeal for the emancipation of the enslaved, 
nor the removal of any other crying sin, nor the spread 
of intelligence by the means of public instruction, can 
furnish the needed remed}^ Out of the heart are the issues 
of life ! In the same measure as I see the head of the nation 
turn in contrition to God, I feel comforted: and thankful. 



5T 

indeed, am I, to know that the soldier to whose brief life 
these pages have been devoted, and who not only has fought 
for his earthly country, but who has also fought the good 
fight of faith, is but" one out of a great and noble army. 
Through much tribulation they have entered and are enter- 
ing the kingdom of heaven. 

But to conclude. I have at all times felt it to be both an 
honor and a joy to be a citizen of this country, but never 
have I felt more strongly that this is my true home, than 
since these calamities have come upon us ; and since I have 
been enabled from day to day to scatter seed, which, with 
the blessing of God, may contribute in some measure to the 
way for a firmer trust in God, and for a more living faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. May the blessing of God continue to 
rest upon the many efforts which arc now made to advance 
His cause. 



THE TURNER'S LANE HOSPITAL. 



(59) 



THE TURNER'S LANE HOSPITAL. 

To prepare tlie reader for what I have to say with regard 
to the Turner's Lane Hospital, I beg leave to submit to him 
a few remarks concerning the Army of the United States. 
I do not mean to address the soldiers of that army in the 
voice of flattery ; it is heard 1 lut too often and by no means 
commends to their hearers those who employ it. I do not 
wish to conceal the fact, that a portion of that army consists 
of those who have entered it simply because they obtain a 
certain amount of bounty, or from other considerations of a 
like character ; nor am I disposed to forget that I have met 
with those who preferred to walk crooked though their spine 
was not injured, and with some who by other devices 
' attempted to escape from active service. I shall not attempt 
to, give the impression, that the soldiers of the United States 
are men who are every way superior to the great mass of 
citizens, and whom I can hardly meet without feeling dis- 
posed to take off my hat. If I were to make such an effort 
I would get but poor thanks from those whose approval is 
of value, and for their sakes as well as my own, I shall 
abstain from it. 

What I meant to say is, that with all the deductions it 
may be necessary to make, there yet remains the fact that 
in the same measure as we submit the principles of action 
by which the great majority of the Army of the United 
States are influenced, to a careful examination, we are filled 
with the conviction that in many respects they occupy a 
position altogether peculiar in the history of the world. It 
is not only the determination to preserve unimpaired the 
national existence, and to rest not till the rebellion is crushed, 
which impells them to action; the Emperor of China has 
struggled for a similar end. In the soul of the American 
soldier there is at the same time the consciousness that he is 

(61) 



62 

fighting for the cause of freedom, and his arm is nerved 
by the thought that as he is Jo maintain the free institu- 
tions of his country, so is his country to favor the cause 
of freedom throughout the universe. And this feeling is 
not to be thought lightly of, as the effect of national vanity. 
Slowly and silently perhaps, but on that account not less 
surely and effectually, has the peaceful progress of America 
tended to lighten the weight of oppression and to prepare 
the way for constitutional freedom in other parts of the 
world, and in consequence of it, millions have left their 
homes in Europe to join in sustaining the institutions which 
had been the means of securing such general prosperity. 
Appreciating the benefits which they confer, it is not 
astonishing that when it had become evident that it was 
by an appeal to the sword alone that the overthrow of these 
institutions could be prevented, thousands of them should 
be found ready to enter the ranks of the Army of the United 
States. 

But there is a still deeper current of feeling in the hearts 
of many of the American soldiers which invites our attention. 
The peculiar influences under which this country has been 
settled, have never altogether lost their force. It is a faith 
handed down from father to child that this country is to be 
the means of spiritual blessings to the world, and the pious 
soldier sees in the changes which every day almost is 
ushering in, an evidence of the presence of God who is thus 
preparing the people of the United States to become better 
fitted for the part they are to take in the conversion of the 
world. With one* who has ably developed the thought 
that our country is to be the chief national instrumentality 
in the reformation of Christendom and the conversion of the 
world, I would ask, when there was ever such a prayerful 
going forth to battle in the holy and cheerful spirit of chris- 
tian sacrifice? European oflicers high in command have 
paid a frank tribute to the superiority of the Army of the 
United States, because the men who compose it are not only 



* Influence of the United States on Ghristendom, a sermon delivered by 
Thomas H. Stockton, at the Church of the New Testament, Philadelphia, 
November 29th. 



63 

brave, but also remarkable for intelligeuce aud for their 
being fully conscious of. the high aims which the)^ struggle 
to attain. The means I enjoy from day to day of watching 
the self-denying spirit of these men, give me ample oppor- 
tunity to know that the praise thus freely given is n')t 
undeserved. 

Having made these reraarics by way of introduction, I am 
ready to invite my reader to enter with me the grounds of 
the Turner's Lane Hospital. 

This Hospital is situated in the northwestern part of the 
City of Philadelphia, at a distance of about half a mile from 
Girard College. By the older inhabitants the situation is 
remembered as a country residence, the inmates of which, 
for many years, bore a part in whatever of joy or sorrow 
might visit the neighborhood in Avhich the}^ lived. In the 
course of time the property passed into the hands of an 
. association of Germans, who devoted it to hospital purposes. 
In the year 1862, this association rented it to the Government 
of the United States, and on the 13th of August of that year 
it was opened for the reception of soldiers. In addition to 
the main building which is principally used for officers, and 
a smaller building which the ladies interested in the Hospital 
occupy, the Government has constructed a number of bar- 
racks. The place has not, however, altogether lost its rural 
appearance since the space which is encircled by these bar- 
racks is still covered with the trees and the shrubbery of 
former days, while the well-cared for green house shelters 
the flowers which in the spring shall again gladden the 
inmates of the Hospital. 

Another part of the grounds is occupied by the kitchen, 
the library, the dispensary and such smaller buildings as the 
business of the hospital requires. 

Dr. E. A. Christian, Surgeon U. S. V., the present head 
of the hospital, has been in charge of it since June 15th, 
1864. 

The gentlemen who have preceded him are : 

Dr. G. Wood, in charge from August 13th, 1862, to Sep- 
tember 18th, 1862. 



(54 

Assistant Surgeon E. S. Duuster, U. S. A., in charge from 
September ISth, 1862, to March 12th, 1863. 

Assistant Surgeon C. H. Alden, U. S. A., in cliarge from 
March 12th, 18^3, to June 15th, 1861. 

On the third of December, 1862, I succeeded the Eev. 
Robert Graham in the capacity of Chaplain of this hospitah 
As appears from the dates just given, during the greater 
portion of my service in this hospital, I have stood oihcially 
connected with Dr. Alden. As his position in this hospital 
now belongs to the memories of the past, I need not deprive 
UAyself of the pleasure of saying that he is remembered b}'' 
many in this hospital with affection and regard. 

Since the opening of the hospital, there have been admitted 
to it up to this date (Dec. llrth) 2,632 patients; of these, 
1,173 have been returned to duty, 401 have been transferred 
to other hospitals, 281 have been discharged from service, 
and 49 have died. Since the 27th of September, this hospi- 
tal has been more especially used for the treatment of nervous 
cases, which do not often put a sudden period to life ; to this 
I'act may be in part ascribed the small number of deaths, as 
above recorded ; it is principally due, however, to the skill 
of the operator, and to the faithfulness with which the pro- 
gress of disease has been watched, as well as to the physi- 
cal, intellectual and spiritual influences which contribute to 
the recovery of health, with which this hospital has been 
fovored. 

The remarks I have to offer, with regard to the Turner's 
Lane Hospital, will have reference principally to its spiritual 
life — since, as the chaplain of the hospital, that portion of its 
history has been brought more especially under my notice. 
Yet, before entering upon this task, I cannot but say that 
the worldly interests of the hospital are so ably attended to, 
tliat I cannot but devote to them a passing notice. 

The hospital is under the management of a Steward, who 
is conscientious in the disposition of the funds entrusted to 
him, a fact which deserves to be noted, as there have been 
stewards who have been wanting in this respect ; — who is so 
judicious in his purchases that, in a city which numbers not 
less than 600,000 inhabitants, where there is so much com- 



65 

petition, and where it is so difficult to. achieve eminence, lie 
has acquired the reputation of being one of the best caterers, 
and who is ever ready to minister to the spirits as well as 
the bodies of the soldiers, by making the strains of miisic 
and the voice of song contribute to their entertainment. 

It is but justice to say, that whatever reputation this hos- 
pital has for efficiency, it owes in a goodly degree to the 
intelligent zeal of B. F. Spaflford, Hospital Steward, U. S. A. 

Hospital life, in all its phases, since the beginning of the 
war, has occupied so many able pens, that the great mass of 
the reading public are likely to be sufficiently well informed 
with regard to it. They know that the spiritual life of 
hospitals is subject to peculiar influences; that from each 
important battle-field numbers of wounded men are sent to 
them ; that the dangers through which these men have passed 
often fill them with serious thoughts, and that as the varying 
scenes of the march and the excitement of battle are ex- 
changed for the quiet and the retirement of the hospital, 
their hearts and minds, with a feeling of more than usual 
tenderness, turn to the loved ones at home, or to the better 
home in heaven ; they also know, or they will easily infer, 
that under such circumstances, a kind word from the chap- 
lain, or from some kind-hearted visitor, is likely to meet 
with a ready response, and that therefore a chaplain's congre- 
gation is not without many elements of peculiar interest. 

There is no need then to dwell on the encouragement 
which the chaplain derives, when, at the hour of preaching, 
he sees himself surrounded by a congregation many of whom 
are hanging upon his lips with strange intenseness, since 
perchance, for months past they have not heard the Gospel, 
and others, because the scenes through which they have 
passed have given them a new power of understanding it ; nor 
shall I attempt to enter into particulars with regard to the 
meetings for prayer, where bands of brothers meet and part, 
not to meet again in most cases till the Great Day of Account. 
There is indeed but one feature to which I shall call the 
reader's attention with regard to these prayer meetings. 
When there has been a good deal of fighting going on, these 
accessions are of course of frequent occurrence, and, as at 



times, soldiers come to our hospital who in a day or two 
may leave it for some other, liberty is given to all to speak 
or to pray as the Spirit may prompt. When on such occa- 
sions, with the confession of sin and a deep sense of the 
reality of a Judgment to come, there is heard mingling ever- 
more the expression of adoration and of endearment witli 
regard to Him. who had come to honor the law and to die 
''for us," who has become "the propitiation for our sins," 
and " through whose stripes we are healed ;" the High Priest 
who can feel for our infirmities, and who is at the same 
time powerful to deliver us from them, and who has proved 
himself most near in the hour of greatest need, the mind of 
the listener instinctively turns back to the conflicts through 
which, age after age the church has passed in defending the 
Truth she holds, and derives new confidence and hope from 
the united confession of these little bands of believers. The 
missionaries, laboring in foreign lands, tell us that when at 
rare intervals they meet with brother missionaries, the con- 
sciousness of their being one in Christ, partakers of the same 
Divine life, throws into shade every question of denomina- 
tional differences. There is in the spiritual life of the 
hospital something similar to this. It will hardly be thought 
strano-e that even when in one instance, a German brother 
forgetting that he could not be understood, poured forth his 
confession and his petitions in his native tongue, it did not 
interrupt this consciousness of being one in Christ, but made 
it rather more deeply felt. 

What I liave said with regard to hospital life in general 
applies also to the labors in which many christian woman 
have engaged in connection with them. While they have 
gone forth imobtrusively, prompted by patriotic and christian 
principles, in order to alleviate suffering, their self-denying 
and persevering labors have not failed to call forth the praise 
they deserve. It is therefore rather to satisfy my own heart 
than to convey information, that I say of the ladies connected 
with the Turner's Lane Hospital, that the attention they 
have paid to those who need articles of food which tlie Gov- 
ernment does not furnish, the interest they have manifested 
in the wives and the children of the soldiers, their efforts for 



67 

their instruction and their amusement, and the gentleness 
and affection with which they have endeavoured to arouse 
the spiritual life of the inmates of the hospital are gratefully 
remembered, not only by many of those who are yet mem- 
bers of it, but also by many others who have left it but with 
whom I am still in correspondence. I feel thankful, indeed, 
thaf my intercourse with them does not only belong to the 
memories of the past, but that it is my daily privilege to en- 
joy their counsel or to join with them in labors of love* 

One of them, however, is no longer with us. Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Abbott, the lady-matron of this hospital, from the time 
it was first opened, departed this life while I was on a dis- 
tant field of duty. In her case, as in the case of every faith- 
ful christian, we have reason to rejoice that her comparatively 
short stay amongst us ig full of pleasant memories. 

Favored by the possession of a large fortune, the ardent 
devotion of a husband and the warm affection of a large 
circle of relations and friends, her life for many years seems 
to have flowed on so smoothly that the preparation for eter- ' 
nity which we all need seems to have been lost out of sight. 
The long protracted sickness by which her husband was 
afliicted till death brought relief^ was the means of gradually 
withdrawing her from the gaieties of society and of leading 
her to more serious thoughts. The shock which the death 
of Mr. Abbott produced on her was so great that it seemed 
as if she would sink under it. At the same time, however, 
it became the means of convincing her that she needed a 
higher than human power to sustain her in her deep afiiic- 
tion. Her husband had been a member of the Orthodox 
branch of the Society of Friends. She now became a mem- 
ber of that organization, and in doing so, made no secret of 
the fact that the unsatisfactory character of all that is earthlj- 
had been revealed to her, and that she sought Him who is 
the Truth and the Life. 

At the time when these spiritual yearnings had been 

* The labors of Miss Otto and Miss Troutwine in connection with a Bible 
Class formed in the Turner's Lane Hospital, have been greatly blest, ani 
have been often the means of drawing attention to cases of special interest. 
Miss Troutwine is still with us. 



68 

awakened in "her, the Turner's Lane Hospital was opened in 
the immediate vicinity of her residence. She was invited to 
take an active part in alleviating the sufferings of the sick 
and the wounded. She accepted the invitation, and there is 
no doubt that in the same measure as she endeavored to 
impart comfort to others, her own spirit was comforted. 
From the time of the opening of this hospital, in the sumrfier 
of 1862, she continued to preside over the counsels and the 
efforts of the circle of ladies connected with it, till she was 
prevented by her sickness, in the month of August, 1864. 
On her death-bed, her only trust was "Christ, the blessed 
Son of God." Her life of faithful devotion to duty, while 
connected with this liospital, has been in beautiful harmony 
with this confession. The ladies who for so long a time have 
been associated with her in labors of love, and the of&cers 
and surgeons who have been brought in contact with her on 
many occasions of of&cial or social intercourse, will bear me 
out in the tribute which I am thus offering to her memory. 
The soldiers who have experienced the care with which she 
watched over their bodily comfort, and the earnestness with 
which she supplied whatever might contribute to their 
spiritual welfare, will never forget her. When, in the letters 
which I receive from those who have left the hospital, 
mention is made of the kindness they have experienced at 
the hands of the ladies connected with this hospital, the 
name of Mrs. Abbott always occupies a prominent place. 

I have only to add, that my intercourse with Mrs. Abbott 
has left on my mind the impression of one who was remark- 
able, not only for a cultivated literary taste and a highly 
genial spirit, but also for deep humility and an earnest desire 
to know and to do her duty. 

The glance which I have cast at the spiritual life of the 
inmates of the Turner's Lane Hospital, suggests a brief refer- 
ence to the manner in which God is likely to overrule our 
national trials for our good. 

Trench, in his lecture on the "Progressive unfolding of 
Scripture," speaks of it as a Book intended for the education 
of man, since it contains the gradual unfolding of a thought 
which could have only entered into the mind of God to con- 



ceive, and wliich He only, who is the King of everlasting 
ages, could have carried out. In developing this idea, he 
dwells on the different epochs in the national life of Israel : 
on Abraham's child-like faith, on the sense of alienation from 
God, awakened by the giving of the law and of the meeting 
in Christ of Righteousness and Love. There are similar 
epochs in the history of every nation, and ours is in the act 
of giving a striking proof of it. With the beginning of the 
struggle in which we are now engaged, we have been leaving 
the age, when, with child-like confidence, we persuaded our- 
selves that all was well. Being now delivered up to the 
stern discipline of the law, it may aptly be said, that we are 
engaged in a wilderness journey, which is to prepare us for 
a better future. If I were to say that this bettisr future 
which God intends for us is to be obtained, not by the cast- 
ing off of this or that national sin, but by faith in the Son of 
God, that it is of this that the spirit of God has come to con- 
vince the world, and that it is to' draw to Him that the 
Father is constantly casting out his cords of love, the words 
might fall strangely upon the ears of some, and yet it is by 
our nearness to Him that nations as well as individuals shall 
be judged, and it is our nearness to Him which is highest 
bliss. The readiness with which men and women, favored 
by position and fortune in many instances, seek for lasting 
joy in caring for those who are less favored ; the thought 
that God is in the overturnings which our country is experi- 
encing, and a willingness to submit to his righteous judg- 
ment which we meet frequently and in quarters where we 
least expected it, and that divine charity which many sad 
provocations have caused only to shine more brightly, and 
of which the actions as well as the sayings of our President 
present a noble example ; all these are indications that the 
purifying process to which we are now subjected is produc- 
ing some cheering results. It also deserves attention that 
many organizations which the necessities of our time have 
called into existence, are in a great degree pervaded by a 
spirit which belongs not to this earth alone, though the 
inquiry may be instituted, whether, in our public philan- 
thropic labors, there is not room for our acting more from 



70 

principle tLan from excitemGnt and, unconsciously; perhaps, 
from a willingness to fall in with what happens to be 
popular.* It is also more than probable that, as indi- 
viduals, we are at times forgetful that, as Trench beautifully 
expresses it, "it is when we are welcoming and fulfilling the 
lowliest duties which meet us in the common paths of a 
christian life, we shall often be surprised that we have 
unawares been welcoming and entertaining angels." 

Among the topics which are intimately connected with 
the welfare of our soldiers, is the care which some of their 
families stand in need of. I am not astonished that the 
pastors of this city find their feelings, their time, and their 
labors enlisted in the families of soldiers, who, from various 
reasons, are suffering. The ladies connected with the Turn- 
er's Lane Hospital, as well as myself, are called from day to 
day to engage in similar efforts. Whether these sufferings 
arise from guilt or neglect, or whether they are occasioned 
by circumstances over which the Government can have no 
control, are not subjects which call for a consideration on the 
present occasion. .. I know that I have to devote myself to 
this work, and that I have to enlist the help of others as far 
as I may. 

A second topic to which I wish to direct the attention of 
the reader, is the care which the orphans of those need, who 
have fallen on the field of battle. I have become somewhat 
intimately acquainted with one of the institutions intended 
in part, at least, to meet this want. A brief history of it 
may be the means of enlisting the reader's interest in other 
institutions of a similar character. 

When in 1862, I arrived in this city, after having made 
rny escape from the South e'rn Confederacy, I learned that a 
clergyman, the Eev. E. Boehringer, who had labored as a 
missionary in the cities of Norfolk and Eichmond, had also 

* It was probably a train of thought, such as I now am indulging in, 
which has led a member of the debating society in Turner'a Lane Hos- 
pital to maintain the other day that, while our feelings are justly enlisted 
in the cause of the colored people, we are too forgetful of what we owe tc 
the Cherokoes, whose loyalty and whose sufferings may well be placed by 
the side of East Tennessee. 



71 

succeeded in escaping. I of course felt an interest in making 
his acquaintance, but for more than a year after did not 
meet liim again. Then, however, I learned that he had 
started an Orphan Asylum, and that he intended to piiy 
especial attention to the orphans of soldiers. Meeting him 
in the month of August, I promised him that as soon as I 
should return from a journey I was then about to undertake, 
I would join him in making an effort to -increase the funds 
of the Institution. After an absence of two months I 
returned to this city, and learned that the Kev. E. Bcehringer 
and his wife had departed this life. 

Fifty children had been received into the Asylum at the 
time of Mr. B.'s death. To these are now added the six 
children of the founder of the Institution, In the language 
of one who has lately visited the Institution and there met 
these children: "If it be, as we know it is, one of G-od's 
luvorite attributes to care for the fatherless under all circum- 
stances, we cannot doubt but that orphans, who have been 
made such in the service of the orphan cause itself, must 
have a more than common claim on His regard ; and their 
presence in an Orphans' Home may well be taken, therefore, 
as the surest token it can have of His continual favor and 
blessing." 

This Orphans' Home is under the regular supervision of 
the Board of Directors for Orphans' Homes, appointed by 
the General Synod of the German Reformed Church, and 
under the immediate management of a Committee of Minis- 
ters and Laymen of that body. 

The -Committee have purchased a suitable piece of pro- 
perty at Bridesburg, and are making additions to it, which 
are greatly needed. To defray the expenses, a subscription 
list has been started, on which the names of hiany prominent 
citizens are already found. If the Lord should move the 
hearts of any to do something for these orphans, the letter 
containing the contribution should bo addressed to the present 
head of the Institution, the Rev. J. Gautenbein, Orphans' 
Home, Bridesburg, Philadelphia, Pa. 

The third topic to which I wish to refer, is the attention 
which those need who have been disabled by the loss of 



72^ 

limbs or other severe injury. The opening of the Christian 
Street Hospital for purposes of this kind, promises to meet 
this want in a great measure. It is my earnest prayer that 
the Surgeon in charge and the Chaplain of that hospital may 
be abundantly sustained by the patriotic and benevolent in 
our community. I do not know a class of men in many of 
whom I feel a deeper interest than these maimed soldiers. 

The fourth and last topic which calls for some reference 
on my part, is the attention which is due to the Cerman 
soldiers of our army. From the time when (thirty-seven 
years ago) I came to this country to the present day, I have 
held that every proper step should be taken which may serve 
to jremove the barriers which a difference of language is 
likely to keep up between different portions of our popula- 
'lation. Still there are cases when the means of grace should 
be provided for tlxem. I am thankful that the Christian 
Commission is employing a Grerman missionary to visit the 
German soldiers in our hospitals. The enterprize of the 
Rev. Mr. Eomich, who has been the means of erecting a 
church edifice at the corner of Poplar and Twenty-first 
streets, also commends itself to every one who is aware how 
important it is that our German emigrants should be provided 
with the means of. grace. 

In now bringing this article to a close, I am conscious that 
I have used but a small portion of the material at my dis- 
posal. These are the letters which, from time to time, have 
been addressed to me, or to the ladies interested in our hos^ 
pital, by soldiers who were with us for a time. The very 
uncertainty whether these soldiers are still with Grant, with 
Sherman, or with Thomas, or whether they have gone to 
their final rest, give a solemn interest to the statements they 
contain ; and there are the sketches of their experience since 
the commencement of the war, which several of the soldiers, 
by my request, have furnished me; and there is the diary, 
which T have kept, and which, imperfect as it is, contains 
accounts deserving of notice. 

Nor have I said anything of the liberality with which the 



73 

Bible Society, the Tract Society, and the Christian and Sani- 
tary Commissions^ have attended to t^e wants of the soldiers ; 
or of the readiness with which the Army Committee of the 
Young Men's Christian Association has, from time time, 
made valuable additions to our library. My duties in the 
hospital leave me too little leisure to draw upon these stores, 
or to dwell upon the evidence this hospital has received of 
the great usefulness of these associations. And, in con- 
clusion, I can only say, that I am deeply grateful for the 
manner in which I have been treated by all who, from time 
to time, have been connected with this Institution. They 
have borne with my weaknesses, they have overlooked my 
short-comings, and, as far as I know, they have never doubted 
that it is my earnest and prayerful desire that the cause of 
the Lord Jesus Christ may be established and built up in the 
hearts of those who are entrusted to my spiritual care. I 
trust that my future course shall be marked by increased 
faithfulness. 



HB -f>0 



i%^.' ^■^ ■%■ ■ 
















'^ %/ '^■^"^''^ ^.Z -^ %^^ """■"-' 



. o 






<^. 






^p 






^0^ 



'-^ 



^o"^ 

Hq 



-<> 



^°V. 



o 



s-^:. .'V > ^^4^.:;-/ 



-J."^ , 



o V 




'^ 
^/^J 







■Ai-it^yiv. "^ -<i 




.v-^^ 



mw.-' ^^"-* 



A 















^^. 



•f' 



o 




•^ 






o V 



r ^' 



.0^ . 



'i^:S^. 



-Ji*'.\ 



^M^ 



V 
h" '^. 



,0" 



^4}^*' -v^' '^ ^^^ifo^.* «y' ^'^ -:^€^^^^-' -^^ 



.." A 



i£J>i»^'' «.- 



o V 




-^' 



^y 0°": "■» <*>i ,0 






V' 









3 

>TINE 
FLA. O 



2084 







.1: 



^^ '^^, 



c^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 040 879 7 




